\fUtUti* 


JOHN      KNOX 


JOHN    KNOX 

HIS   IDEAS  AND  IDEALS 


BY  THE    REV. 


JAMES   STALKER,   D.D., 

Proft**or  of  Ch«rch  Hiitory,  Unittd 
Fnt  Colltgt,  Atxrdttn 


NEW    YORK 

,      C.     ARMSTRONG    &    SON 

3  AND  5  WEST  EIGHTEENTH  STREET 

LONDON :  HODDER  AND  STOUGHTON 

1904 


Pnnttd  by  Haatll,  Watson  &  Vinty,  Ld.,  London  and  Aylesbury,  England. 


TO    MY    STUDENTS 


2022C17 


PREFACE 

T  N  1905  not  only  Scotland  but  her  sons  and 
-*•  daughters  in  distant  lands  will  be  celebrating, 
amidst  the  sympathy  of  the  world,  the  Quatercen- 
tenary  of  the  birth  of  the  greatest  of  Scotsmen  ;  and 
this  volume  is  offered  as  a  contribution  to  this  event. 
What  has  specially  guided  me,  in  addition  to  the 
interest  of  the  occasion,  has  been  the  desire  to 
make  the  Reformer's  own  sentiments  better  known. 
These  are  contained  in  volumes  which  are  read  by 
few ;  and  they  are  concealed  beneath  a  repellent 
orthography;  but  there  is  virtue  in  them  which 
ought  to  be  felt  ;  and  I  have  endeavoured  to 
release  it.  I  do  not  pretend  to  have  given  a 
complete  collection  of  Knox's  good  things  ;  but 
at  least  I  have  creamed  them  and  furnished  enough 
to  familiarise  the  reader  not  only  with  his  ideas 
but  with  the  remarkable  phraseology  in  which  these 
were  expressed  ;  and  my  hope  is  that  the  following 
pages  may  help  to  make  it  true  that  "he,  being 
dead,  yet  speaketh." 


vi  PREFACE 

Ample  acknowledgments  are  due  not  only  to 
the  standard  work  of  Dr.  M'Crie  and  the  solid 
volumes  of  Dr.  Hume  Brown,  but  also  to  the 
slighter  sketches  by  Mrs.  M'Cunn,  Mr.  Taylor  Innes, 
and  the  late  Dr.  W.  M.  Taylor  of  New  York, 
each  of  which  has  its  own  special  charm.  Upon 
John  Knotfs  House  and  the  translation  into  modern 
English  of  The  History  of  the  Reformation  much 
affectionate  and  successful  labour  has  been  bestowed 
by  Mr.  Charles  J.  Guthrie.  The  lecture  in  Carlyle's 
Heroes,  though  brief,  was  epoch-making  ;  there  is  a 
fine  touch  in  the  late  R.  W.  Harbour's  chapter  in 
The  Evangelical  Succession  ;  and  R.  L.  Stevenson's 
essays  in  Men  and  Books  is  fresh  and  suggestive. 
But  it  is  to  Dr.  David  Laing's  six  volumes  of  Knox's 
Works  that  the  reader  must  turn  who  desires  to  see 
Knox  face  to  face  ;  and  it  is  to  this  conscientious 
editor's  immortal  labours  that  I  have  to  express  the 
deepest  debt  of  gratitude. 

ABERDEEN,  20  October,  1904. 


CONTENTS 
BOOK    FIRST 

JOHN   KNOX 
CHAPTER   I. 

EARLY  YEARS 


CHAPTER    II. 

EXILE 25 

CHAPTER    III. 

THE    SCOTTISH    REFORMATION 53 

CHAPTER   IV. 

CLOSING    YEARS     .  82 


viii  CONTENTS 

BOOK    SECOND 

HIS  IDEAS 


CHAPTER   I. 

PAGE 

HIS   BOOKS     .  97 


CHAPTER   II. 

HIS   RELIGIOUS    CONVICTIONS 

CHAPTER   III. 


HIS   POLITICAL    OPINIONS 


1 66 


BOOK    THIRD 
HIS  IDEALS 

CHAPTER   I. 

THE  SCOTS  CONFESSION    OF   FAITH  .....       193 

CHAPTER^  II. 

THE    BOOK    OF   COMMON    ORDER 214 

CHAPTER   III. 

THE    BOOK    OF    DISCIPLINE 225 


BOOK    FIRST 
JOHN  KNOX 


CHAPTER    I. 

EARLY   YEARS 

JOHN  KNOX  was  born  at  Haddington  in  the 
year  1505.  Neither  place  nor  date  is,  indeed, 
absolutely  beyond  dispute  ;  and  the  slight 
uncertainty  has  afforded  ample  room  for  the  con- 
flicts of  antiquarians.  The  place  may  have  been 
the  village  of  Gifford,  two  or  three  miles  from 
Haddington,  but  was  more  probably  Gifford-gate, 
a  portion  of  Haddington  itself ;  and  the  date 
may  have  been  a  few  years  later,  even  as  much 
as  ten  years,  as  one  keen  investigator  in  such 
matters  has  recently  suggested  ;  but  the  variations 
from  the  received  date  are  less  likely  to  have 
been  due  to  exceptional  knowledge  and  care  than 
to  carelessness,  which  in  regard  to  such  points 
was  common  in  those  days.  Some  people  even 
in  our  day  do  not  know  the  exact  date  of  their 
own  birth. 

In    the   sixteenth    century    Haddington    appears 
to  have  occupied  a  more  outstanding  position  than 


4  JOHN  KNOX 

it  now  does  among  the  towns  of  Scotland,  and, 
lying  on  the  route  of  armies  advancing  from  England, 
it  had  suffered  much  in  the  wars  with  which  during 
the  preceding  centuries  that  part  of  the  country 
was  incessantly  harassed.  In  Knox's  time  it 
contained  two  monasteries  and  an  abbey  ;  so  that 
he  had  constantly  before  his  eyes,  in  the  years 
when  impressions  penetrate  most  deeply,  the  system 
of  religion  which  he  was  destined  to  destroy ; 
and,  besides,  there  were  several  chapels  and 
churches,  one  of  which,  on  account  of  its  prominence 
in  the  landscape,  bore  the  title  of  the  Lamp  of 
Lothian.  The  town  also  possessed  a  school  of 
note,  in  which,  it  may  be  presumed,  the  future 
reformer  received  the  elements  of  education,  as 
no  fewer  than  three  other  Scottish  worthies  had 
done  before  him — Bower,  Wyntoun  and  Major. 

The  name  of  Knox  was  not  scarce  in  Scotland  in 
that  age,  or  confined  to  one  district  of  the  country  ; 
so  that  it  is  impossible  to  infer  with  any  degree 
of  certainty  a  connection  with  him  every  time 
it  turns  up  in  the  records  of  the  period.  The 
most  prominent  Knoxes  in  the  country  were  those 
of  Ranfurly  in  Renfrewshire,  but  no  connection 
between  them  and  the  Reformer  has  been 
established.  In  an  interview  with  the  Earl  of 
Bothwell,  who  had  estates  in  Haddingtonshire,  Knox 


JOHN  KNOX  5 

said,  as  he  has  himself  recorded  in  his  History 
of  the  Reformation  in  Scotland :  "  My  grandfathers, 
paternal  and  maternal,  and  my  father  have  served 
your  lordship's  predecessors,  and  some  of  them 
have  died  under  their  standards "  ; *  which  appears 
to  indicate  that  he  was  a  farmer's  son  with  an 
attachment  to  the  soil  and  to  the  feudal  superior. 
His  father's  name  was  William,  as  was  also  that 
of  his  brother,  who  figures  here  and  there  in  his 
writings  as  a  substantial  merchant,  trading  in 
his  own  ship  with  England,  and  as  a  sincere 
adherent  of  the  Reformed  faith.  His  mother  was 
a  Sinclair — a  name  which  he  himself  sometimes 
employed  in  signing  his  letters,  when  it  was 
dangerous  to  make  use  of  his  own.  Thus  it  will 
be  seen  that  he  belonged,  by  birth  and  upbringing, 
to  the  lower  order  of  the  middle  class,  which  he 
was  to  do  so  much  to  educate  and  elevate  ;  although 
he  was  destined  to  be  associated  in  a  remarkable 
degree  with  the  nobility  of  his  native  country ; 
while  for  the  masses  of  the  community,  which  in 
our  day  bulk  so  largely  in  the  thoughts  of  religious 
leaders,  he  had,  apart  from  his  faith  in  the 
uplifting  influences  of  the  Gospel,  very  little  of 
the  sympathy  of  the  democrat,  his  commonest 
name  for  this  class  being  "the  rascal  multitude." 
1  History,  ii.  343. 


6  JOHN  KNOX 

Of  how  Knox  came  to  be  set  apart  for  the 
priesthood,  whether  by  his  own  choice  or  by  the 
desire  of  his  parents,  we  have  received  no 
information.  But,  after  being  educated  at  the 
high-school  of  his  native  town,  he  entered  the 
University  of  Glasgow  in  1522,  when  he  was 
seventeen  years  of  age.  As  Haddington  lay  in 
the  diocese  of  St.  Andrews,  it  might  have  been 
expected  that  he  would  have  connected  himself 
with  the  university  of  that  place  ;  but  he  may 
have  been  attracted  to  the  city  of  the  West  by 
the  fame  of  John  Major,  a  Haddingtonshire  man 
like  himself  and  at  that  date  the  most  renowned 
professor  in  the  country.  It  is  generally  believed 
that  Knox  owed  not  a  little  to  this  teacher, 
especially  in  the  formation  of  his  political  views, 
as  did  also  George  Buchanan,  who  was  a  student 
under  the  same  professor  a  little  later  at  St. 
Andrews,  to  which  Major  had  been  transferred. 
Although  a  bold  and  progressive  thinker,  Major 
never  severed  himself  from  the  old  Church. 
Buchanan  became  the  foremost  Humanist  of  his 
age  in  Scotland  and  won  a  European  celebrity 
for  the  elegance  of  his  Latinity.  In  this  direction 
Knox  achieved  no  special  distinction.  His  scholar- 
ship never  .was  worn  as  an  ornament.  But  it  was 
ample  for  the  needs  of  the  day,  for  which  he 


JOHN  KNOX  7 

employed  it.  He  could  refer  with  facility  to  the 
writings  of  the  Fathers  and  to  the  incidents  of 
Church  History,  so  far  as  he.  needed  them.  He 
had  of  course  the  mastery  of  Latin,  this  being 
the  language  in  which  the  intercourse  of  the 
learned  was  carried  on  and  the  instructions  of 
universities  delivered.  Circumstances  led  to  his 
familiar  use  of  the  French  language.  But,  above 
all,  he  threw  himself  on  the  study  of  the  Holy  Bible, 
which  he  read  in  the  original  tongues,  having 
acquired  Hebrew  when  he  was  over  forty.  He 
was  concerned  in  the  translation  of  the  Bible  into 
English  which  goes  by  the  name  of  the  Geneva 
Version  ;  and  it  is  from  this  that  his  own  quotations 
are  generally  made  ;  these  having  for  the  modern 
reader,  on  this  account,  an  odd  and  uncouth  sound. 
It  is  in  the  use  of  his  native  tongue,  however, 
that  he  is  a  master,  his  words  being,  in  comparison 
with  those  of  ordinary  writers,  like  hail  to  rain, 
or  like  bullets  in  comparison  with  arrows.  His 
spelling,  which  is  very  arbitrary,  gives  to  his 
writings  a  foreign  and  repulsive  look  ;  but,  in 
reality,  it  is  quite  easy  to  read  them ;  and  it  is 
useless  to  continue  printing  them  in  the  old 
orthography. 

As  has  been  remarked,  it  was  in  the  year   1522, 
when    he    was    seventeen    years    of    age,    that    he 


8  JOHN  KNOX 

entered  the  University  of  Glasgow.  Thereafter  he 
lived  fifty  years,  dying  in  1572.  But  for  exactly 
the  half  of  this  period — namely,  from  1522  to  1546 
— we  have  next  to  no  information  about  him  ; 
except  that  a  document  has  been  discovered  in 
which  he  signs  himself,  in  Latin,  "John  Knox, 
minister  of  the  Sacred  Altar,  of  the  diocese  of  St. 
Andrews,  notary  by  Papal  Authority,"  which 
betokens  that  he  had  become  a  priest  and  employed 
himself,  either  occasionally  or  regularly,  in  notarial 
business,  which  would  in  our  day  be  done  by  lawyers 
but  in  those  days  was  included  among  the  multi- 
farious employments  of  the  priesthood.  When  again 
he  emerges  into  visibility,  he  is  engaged  in  the 
work  of  tuition  in  a  noble  family  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  his  birthplace.  Such  employment  has 
always  been  among  those  in  which  men  educated 
for  the  sacred  office  might  be  found  engaged  ;  but 
it  is  extraordinary  to  find  Knox  still  occupied  with 
it  at  the  age  of  two-and-forty.  This  gives  colour  to 
the  idea  that  the  date  of  his  birth  is  too  early. 
But  of  course  there  may  have  been  other  reasons 
for  the  anomaly,  such,  for  example,  as  scruples 
about  engaging  in  the  regular  work  of  the  priest- 
hood. From  the  time  when,  in  1547,  he  comes 
clearly  into  view  as  a  public  character,  we  can  follow 
him  with  full  intelligence  to  the  close  of  his  life. 


JOHN  KNOX  9 

Indeed,  his  own  writings,  which  abound  with 
autobiographical  material,  continue  from  this  point 
to  the  end  without  any  considerable  break.  But 
the  mind  of  the  student  of  Knox  lingers  wistfully 
over  the  unrecorded  interval  between  his  seventeenth 
and  his  forty-second  year.  It  reminds  us  of  the 
long  period  of  silence  in  the  biography  of  our  Lord, 
which  is  broken  only  by  the  incident  of  His  first 
visit  to  Jerusalem.  Though  destitute  of  the  delight- 
ful garrulity  of  Luther  about  himself,  Knox  is  not 
particularly  reticent ;  yet  there  are  certain  parts  of 
his  own  biography  where  we  cannot  but  keenly  wish 
that  he  had  told  more  ;  and  this  is  one  of  them. 
We  are  left  to  infer  back  from  his  subsequent  life, 
which  is  known,  to  this  part,  which  is  unknown. 
Of  one  thing  we  may  be  certain,  that  he  obtained 
in  those  years  a  precise  and  extensive  knowledge 
of  the  religious  system  which  it  was  to  be  the 
work  of  his  life  to  pull  down.  Of  this  he  always 
speaks  in  the  most  uncompromising  terms,  like 
one  whose  mind  is  made  up  and  whose  knowledge 
is  so  ample  and  detailed  that  it  is  of  no  use  for 
anyone  to  argue  with  him.  In  Luther's  mind  we 
are  permitted  to  see  the  doubts  and  hesitations 
of  one  who  had  been  trained  to  venerate  the 
authority  and  the  institutions  of  the  ancient  faith 
and  who,  when  first  he  began  to  perceive  that  he 


io  JOHN  KNOX 

must  oppose  the  traditional  system,  felt  all  the 
horror  of  a  sacrilege.  Those  conflicts  of  his  with 
the  Devil,  which  excite  so  different  emotions  in 
different  minds,  were,  in  reality,  only  the  imagin- 
ative equivalents  of  very  real  and  just  fears, 
haunting  a  private  man,  who  was  not  only  departing 
himself  but  leading  multitudes  away  from  the 
customs  of  the  fathers,  lest  he  should  be  leading 
them  to  their  eternal  ruin.  Of  such  timidity 
there  is  in  Knox  no  trace  ;  and  this  may  be  due 
to  the  fact  that  he  had  had  so  long  to  observe 
and  to  think  before  he  came  forward  as  a  public 
guide ;  though  it  may  be  also  attributed  to  the 
fact  mentioned  by  Dr.  McCrie,  whose  statement 
has  been  censured  as  unpatriotic  but  never  dis- 
proved, that  the  corruption  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  had  reached  a  greater  height  in  Scotland 
than  in  any  other  country  of  Europe.  Knox 
always  refers  to  the  old  Church  as  a  system  past 
redemption,  in  defence  of  which  it  is  useless  and 
impossible  to  speak.  The  secularity  and  rapacity 
of  the  higher  clergy,  who  lived  as  nobles  and 
occupied  themselves  with  everything  except  religion  ; 
the  numbers  and  the  viciousness  of  the  friars,  who 
swarmed  like  locusts  in  the  country  and  corrupted 
the  morals  of  the  population  through  the  con- 
fessional, imperilling  the  purity  of  every  household 


JOHN  KNOX  ii 

by  the  fury  of  their  passions ;  the  ignorance  of 
the  parish  priests  and  their  neglect  of  preaching, 
whilst  they  performed  the  routine  of  public  worship 
in  an  unknown  tongue — these  and  suchlike  features 
of  the  actual  condition  of  the  Church  were  palpable 
and  notorious,  crying  to  Heaven  for  a  reformation 
in  root  and  branches. 

In  Luther's  case  we  know  the  steps  by  which 
the  Reformer  himself  was  led  into  the  light ;  and 
the  affecting  story  belongs  to  the  romance  of 
Church  History.  But  in  the  case  of  Knox  we 
possess  no  such  autobiographical  details.  On  his 
deathbed  he  asked  his  wife  to  read  to  him  the 
seventeenth  chapter  of  St.  John,  "  in  which,"  said  he, 
"  I  first  cast  anchor";  but,  when  this  crisis  took 
place,  he  did  not  indicate,  and  he  has  not  indicated 
it  in  any  of  his  writings.  That  there  was  a  crisis 
there  can,  however,  be  little  doubt  ;  and  the 
practised  skill  with  which  he  deals  with  cases  of 
spiritual  upheaval  in  other  souls  suggests  what  had 
been  its  nature.  In  the  account  of  his  first 
preaching  in  Edinburgh  in  the  year  1555  there  is  a 
singular  little  notice,  which  will  be  of  significance 
in  this  respect  to  those  who  have  any  acquaintance 
with  such  matters.  To  himself  it  was  evidently 
very  notable ;  for  he  introduces  this  morsel  of 
personal  history  at  the  very  commencement  of  his 


I2  JOHN  KNOX 

account  of  a  great  public  movement.  "  At  last  came 
John  Knox  in  the  end  of  the  harvest,  in  the  year  of 
God  1555,  who,  first  being  lodged  in  the  house 
of  that  notable  man  of  God,  James  Syme,  began 
to  exhort  secretly  in  that  same  house ;  whereto 
repaired  the  Laird  of  Dun,  David  Forres,  and  some 
certain  personages  of  the  town,  among  whom  was 
Elizabeth  Adamson,  then  spouse  of  James  Barron, 
burgess  of  Edinburgh,  who,  by  reason  that  she 
had  a  troubled  conscience,  delighted  much  in  the 
company  of  the  said  John,  because  that  he, 
according  to  the  grace  given  unto  him,  opened 
more  fully  the  fountain  of  God's  mercies  than  did 
the  common  sort  of  teachers  that  she  had  heard 
before  (for  she  had  heard  none  except  friars),  and 
did  with  such  greediness  drink  thereof  that  at  her 
death  she  did  express  the  fruit  of  her  hearing  to 
the  great  comfort  of  all  those  that  repaired  to 
her  ;  for,  albeit  that  she  suffered  the  most  grievous 
torment  in  her  body,  yet  out  of  her  mouth  was 
heard  nothing  but  praising  of  God,  except  that 
sometimes  she  would  lament  the  troubles  of  those 
that  were  troubled  by  her.  Being  sometimes  de- 
manded by  her  sisters  what  she  thought  of  that 
pain  which  she  then  suffered  in  her  body,  in  respect 
of  that  wherewith  sometimes  she  was  troubled  in 
spirit,  she  answered :  '  A  thousand  years  of  this 


JOHN  KNOX  13 

torment,  and  ten  times  more  joined  unto  it,  is  not 
to  be  compared  to  the  quarter-of-an-hour  that  I 
suffered  in  my  spirit.  I  thank  my  God  through 
Jesus  Christ,  that  has  delivered  me  from  that  most 
fearful  pain  ;  and  welcome  be  this,  even  so  long 
as  it  pleases  His  godly  Majesty  to  exercise  me 
therewith.'  A  little  before  her  departure,  she 
desired  her  sisters  and  some  others  that  were 
beside  her  to  sing  a  psalm  ;  and,  among  others,  she 
appointed  the  ciii.  Psalm,  beginning,  '  My  soul, 
praise  thou  the  Lord  alway,'  which  ended,  she  said  : 
'  At  the  teaching  of  this  psalm  began  my  soul 
first  effectually  to  taste  of  the  mercy  of  my  God, 
which  now  to  me  is  more  sweet  and  precious  than 
if  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  were  given  me  to 
possess  them  a  thousand  years.'  The  priests  urged 
her  with  their  ceremonies  and  superstitions  ;  to 
whom  she  answered  :  '  Depart  from  me,  ye  sergeants 
of  Satan  ;  for  I  have  refused,  and  in  your  own 
presence  do  refuse,  all  your  abominations.  That 
which  ye  call  your  sacrament  and  Christ's  body 
(as  ye  have  deceived  us  to  believe  in  times  past) 
is  nothing  but  an  idol,  and  has  nothing  to  do  with 
the  right  institution  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and,  therefore, 
in  God's  name,  I  command  you  not  to  trouble  me.' 
They  departed,  alleging  that  she  raved  and  wist 
not  what  she  said.  And  she,  shortly  thereafter, 


I4  JOHN  KNOX 

slept  in  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  the  no  small  comfort  of 
those  who  saw  her  blessed  departing.  This  we 
could  not  omit  of  this  worthy  woman,  who  gave 
so  notable  a  confession,  before  that  the  great  light 
of  God's  Word  did  universally  shine  through  this 
realm." 1  In  scenes  like  this  Knox  was  quite  at 
home ;  in  these  the  Reformation  properly  consisted, 
although  they  are  little  heard  of ;  and  Knox's 
familiarity  with  them  not  only  separates  him  by 
the  whole  breadth  of  the  heavens  from  the  mere 
ecclesiastic,  who  is  concerned  only  with  public 
meetings  and  Church  courts,  but  affords  an  in- 
teresting glimpse  into  his  own  spiritual  history. 

Knox  was  not,  indeed,  a  reformer  in  the  same 
sense  as  Zwingli  or  Luther — men  in  whom  the  con- 
ception of  a  new  Church  and  a  new  world  arose  as 
an  original  inspiration  and  who  fought  their  way 
to  clear  apprehensions  of  the  truth  by  the  force 
of  their  own  spiritual  genius.  He  belonged  to 
the  second  generation  ;  and  his  merit  lay  in  the 
thoroughness  with  which  he  grasped  ideas  which 
were  already  in  the  air,  in  the  force  with  which  he 
drove  these  into  the  mind  of  his  country,  and  in 
the  institutions  by  which  he  provided  for  their  conser- 
vation. In  the  first  book  of  his  History  of  the 
Reformation,  he  has  himself  lovingly  commemorated 
1  History,  i.  245. 


JOHN  KNOX  15 

those  who  were  his  predecessors.  The  stirrings  of 
dissatisfaction  with  the  actual  condition  of  things 
and  of  aspiration  after  a  better  time  came  originally 
from  England,  as  many  as  thirty  persons  of 
condition  being  tried  for  being  followers  of  Wycliffe 
as  early  as  1494  in  Ayrshire,  which  in  the  subse- 
quent period  remained  a  centre  of  reforming  activity. 
Even  before  this,  a  spar  from  the  wreck  of  the 
reforming  efforts  of  Huss  in  Bohemia  was  thrown 
up  on  the  East  coast  of  Scotland,  in  the  person  of 
Paul  Craw,  a  Bohemian  physician,  who  was  burnt 
to  death  at  St.  Andrews  in  1431.  As  the  Reforma- 
tion blazed  forth  in  Germany  through  the  teaching 
of  Luther,  the  sparks  began  to  fall  even  in  Scotland. 
"  At  this  time,"  says  Knox,  "  the  knowledge  of 
God  did  wondrously  increase  within  this  realm, 
partly  by  reading,  partly  by  brotherly  conference, 
which  in  those  dangerous  days  was  used  to  the 
comfort  of  many ;  but  chiefly  by  merchants  and 
mariners,  who,  frequenting  other  countries,  heard 
the  true  doctrine  affirmed,  and  the  vanity  of  the 
papistical  religion  openly  rebuked  ;  among  whom 
Dundee  and  Leith  were  principals."  l  The  truth 
penetrated  the  cloisters,  and  its  presence  was  sus- 
pected even  in  the  court.  When  James  V.  died, 
in  1543,  there  was,  in  the  pocket  of  his  coat,  a  list 
1  History,  i.  61. 


16  JOHN  KNOX 

of  no  fewer  than  a  hundred — another  report  says, 
a  hundred  and  sixty — persons,  some  of  them  be- 
longing to  the  highest  nobility  of  the  realm,  whom 
the  ecclesiastical  authorities  accused  of  heresy  and 
were  urging  the  king  to  cut  off. 

But  the  two  men,  to  whom,  in  the  highest  sense, 
the  title  of  Reformer  belongs  in  Scotland  are  un- 
doubtedly Patrick  Hamilton  and  George  Wishart ; 
and  on  both  Knox  bestows,  in  his  History,  ample 
and  affectionate  commemoration.  The  former  of  the 
two  had  learned  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation  at 
the  feet  of  Luther  and  Melanchthon  themselves 
and,  in  imitation  of  the  latter,  whose  principal  theo- 
logical work  bears  the  name  of  Common  Places — a 
term  signifying  heads  or  subjects  under  which  the 
contents  of  a  book  are  arranged — had  given  them 
to  his  countrymen  in  their  native  tongue  in  a 
brief  volume  popularly  known  as  Patrick's  Places 
and  printed  in  full  by  Knox  in  the  History.  He 
had  to  die  for  his  opinions  at  St.  Andrews  in  1527  ; 
but  the  charm  of  his  youth  and  noble  lineage,  his 
sweetness  of  disposition,  the  cruelty  of  his  martyr- 
dom, and  the  constancy  of  his  faith  in  the  hour 
of  death  so  penetrated  the  heart  of  the  country 
with  ruth  and  inquiry,  that  it  was  commonly  said 
that  the  smoke  1  of  Master  Patrick  had  infected  all 
1  "reek." 


JOHN  KNOX  17 

on  whom  it  had  blown.  A  striking  evidence  of 
the  rapidity  with  which  the  new  opinions  were 
spreading  was  afforded  by  the  passing  of  an  Act 
of  Parliament  in  1543,  giving  permission  to  all  to 
read  the  Scriptures  in  their  own  tongue  and  abolish- 
ing all  acts  to  the  contrary.  "This,"  says  Knox, 
"  was  no  small  victory  of  Christ  Jesus,  fighting 
against  the  conjured  enemies  of  His  verity. 
Then  might  have  been  seen  the  Bible  lying  on 
almost  every  gentleman's  table.  Thereby  did  the 
knowledge  of  God  wondrously  increase,  and  God 
gave  His  Holy  Spirit  to  simple  men  in  great 
abundance."  * 

But  the  most  distinguished  of  the  martyrs  of  the 
Reformation  was  George  Wishart  Of  his  life 
Knox  gives,  in  his  History,  an  account  that  is 
classic  in  its  condensed  completeness.  "  A  man," 
he  calls  him,  "  of  such  grace  as  before  him  was 
never  heard  within  this  realm,  and  are  rare  yet  to 
be  found  in  any  man,  notwithstanding  this  great 
light  of  God  that  since  his  days  has  shined  unto  us." 
He  was  brother  of  the  Laird  of  Pitarrow,  in  Forfar- 
shire,  and  first  fell  under  the  suspicion  of  the 
ecclesiastical  authorities  through  teaching  the  Greek 
Testament  in  Montrose.  The  chief  scene  of  his 
labours  was  Dundee,  from  which,  however,  he  was 
1  History,  i.  100. 

2 


!8  JOHN  KNOX 

banished  through  the  machinations  o  the  hierarchy. 
Passing  to  the  West  country,  he  received  a  hearty 
welcome  there.  But,  hearing  that  the  plague  had 
broken  out  in  Dundee,  he  returned  ;  and,  preaching 
from  the  town-wall  to  the  diseased  on  the  one  side 
and  the  healthy  on  the  other,  he  exhibited  such 
courage  and  intrepidity  in  grappling  with  the  terrible 
visitation  that  he  became  the  idol  of  the  inhabitants, 
among  whom  the  Reformation  in  subsequent  years 
possessed  a  numerous  following.  Nevertheless,  he 
was  hounded  from  the  place  by  the  agents  of  the 
Church  and  had  to  flee  to  Edinburgh.  The  last 
place  in  which  he  preached  was  Haddington,  Knox's 
native  town.  On  16  January  1 546  he  was  ar- 
rested at  the  neighbouring  House  of  Ormiston  ;  and 
on  I  March  he  suffered  at  the  stake  in  St.  Andrews. 
The  contriver  of  this  judicial  murder,  as  well  as 
the  instigator  for  many  years  of  all  the  measures 
taken  against  the  spread  of  the  Reformed  doctrines 
in  the  country,  was  Cardinal  Beaton,  the  Primate 
of  Scotland,  who,  surrounded  by  other  proud  prelates, 
lounged  out  of  a  window  in  his  palace,  to  watch 
the  sufferings  of  the  martyr,  after  giving  orders  that 
all  the  guns  of  the  Castle  should  be  pointed  to  the 
place  of  execution,  lest  there  should  be  any  attempt 
at  a  rescue.  This  man  was  a  typical  ecclesiastic  of 
the  time.  He  was  of  noble  family  and  had  filled 


JOHN  KNOX  19 

numerous  political  offices,  as  member  of  parliament, 
ambassador,  and  the  like.  On  the  death  of  James 
V.,  he  produced  a  will  of  the  deceased  monarch,  by 
which  he  was  constituted  Regent  of  the  kingdom  ; 
but  his  claims  were  set  aside  for  those  of  the  Earl 
of  Arran,  over  whom,  however,  he  soon  acquired 
complete  ascendency.  Meantime  he  had  been  rising 
from  stage  to  stage  of  ecclesiastical  dignity,  till,  in 
1538,  he  obtained  the  hat  of  a  cardinal.  He  was  a 
man  of  towering  ambition  and  great  energy,  which 
was  directed  with  special  vigour  towards  clearing 
the  Church  of  heresy.  But  his  character  was  wholly 
unworthy  of  his  sacred  office  :  he  was  acknowledged 
to  be  the  father  of  a  number  of  sons  and  daughters, 
the  latter  of  whom  he  married  into  the  noble  families 
of  the  country.  When  such  was  the  record  of  the 
highest  dignitary  of  the  Scottish  Church,  what  was  to 
be  expected  of  the  rest  of  the  clergy  ?  And  this 
was  the  man  who  was  hunting  to  death  people  as 
virtuous  a«  he  was  vicious.  Blunted  as  the  con- 
science of  the  country  had  become  through  the  long 
prevalence  of  such  abuses,  there  were  not  awanting 
those  now  who  were  sensible  of  the  glaring  incon- 
sistency ;  and  the  martyrdom  of  Wishart  wrought 
up  their  indignation  to  fever  heat.  They  re- 
solved that  the  murder  of  their  beloved  teacher 
should  be  avenged  ;  and  five  of  them— not  ignorant 


2o  JOHN  KNOX 

fanatics,  but  all  persons  of  repute,  including  Norman 
Leslie,  brother  of  the  Earl  of  Rothes,  and  Kirkcaldy 
of  Grange — surprised  the  Cardinal  in  his  own  palace 
on  29  May  1546  and  stabbed  him  to  death,  after 
assuring  him  that  their  only  motive  was  to  avenge 
the  death  of  Wishart  and  remove  an  obstinate 
enemy  of  the  holy  Evangel.1  Of  course  they  knew 
themselves  to  be  outlaws  ;  but  they  seized  the 
Castle  of  St.  Andrews  and  defied  the  Government, 
while  there  gathered  round  them  a  band  bearing 
some  resemblance  to  that  which  gathered  round 
David  in  the  Cave  of  Adullam,  yet  including 
also  such  men  as  Henry  Balnaves,  a  Lord  of 
Session,  and  Sir  David  Lindsay,  the  poet.  For 
months  they  held  out  against  all  the  power  that  the 
Government  was  able  to  bring  against  them  by 
land  ;  but  at  length  their  stronghold  was  captured 
by  ships  summoned  by  the  Queen  Regent  from 
France  ;  and  in  the  same  vessels  the  Castillians,  as 
they  were  called,  were  borne  away  to  that  country, 
to  be  imprisoned  there  in  fortresses  or  condemned 
to  the  galleys. 

It  is  in  connection  with  these  stirring  events  that 

Knox  emerges  from  the  obscurity  in  which  he  had 

been  enveloped  for    five-and-twenty    years.     When 

Wishart  came  from  Dundee  to  Eastlothian,   Knox 

1  HERKLESS,  Cardinal  Beatgn. 


JOHN  KNOX  21 

"waited  upon  him  carefully,"  as  he  narrates  him- 
self; and  he  was  with  him  during  his  activity  in 
Haddington.  It  was  at  the  house  in  which  Knox 
was  acting  as  tutor  that  the  martyr  was  arrested  ; 
and  Knox  desired  to  accompany  him  ;  but  the  ser- 
vant of  God  replied  :  "  Nay,  return  to  your  pupils  ;  * 
and  God  bless  you  !  one  is  sufficient  for  a  sacrifice." 
Unwillingly  Knox  yielded,  giving  up  a  two-handed 
sword  which  he  had  been  bearing  before  the  Re- 
former— a  means  of  protection  to  which  the  latter 
had  had  to  resort,  and  for  the  use  of  which,  in 
spite  of  the  unwarlike  nature  of  his  employments 
hitherto,  Knox  was  not  perhaps  ill  adapted. 

But  Knox  was  now  a  marked  man,  and  the 
myrmidons  of  the  hierarchy  were  on  his  track.  At 
all  events  he  felt  himself  insecure ;  and  he  betook 
himself  to  the  Cave  of  Adullam  at  St.  Andrews. 
The  parents  of  his  pupils  were  also  suspected 
persons  ;  and,  either  for  this  reason  or  because  they 
put  a  high  value  on  the  instructions  of  their  tutor, 
they  permitted  their  boys  to  accompany  him. 
"  Besides  their  grammar  and  other  human  authors," 
says  Knox,  speaking  of  himself,  "  he  read  unto  them 
a  catechism,  account  whereof  he  caused  them  to 
give  publicly  in  the  parish  Church  of  St.  Andrews. 
He  read,  moreover,  unto  them  the  Evangel  of  John, 
1  "bairns." 


22  JOHN  KNOX 

proceeding  where  he  left  off  at  his  departing  from 
Longniddry,  where  before  his  residence  was  ;  and 
that  lecture  he  read  in  the  chapel  within  the  Castle 
at  a  certain  hour." l  By  these  prelections  the 
attention  of  the  Castillians  was  directed  to  the 
gifted  newcomer ;  and  they  began  to  urge  him 
to  favour  them  with  the  exercise  of  his  talents 
in  the  pulpit.  But  to  this  he  was  entirely  averse, 
till,  instigated  by  Sir  David  Lindsay,  they  resorted 
to  a  pious  ruse  to  overcome  his  scruples.  One 
Sunday  their  preacher,  John  Rough,  after  dis- 
coursing on  the  election  of  ministers,  there  and 
then  addressed  to  Knox  a  call  in  the  name  of  all 
present,  proceeding  in  these  moving  terms :  "  In 
the  name  of  God  and  of  His  Son  Jesus  Christ, 
and  in  the  name  of  those  here  present  who  call 
you  by  my  mouth,  I  charge  you  that  ye  refuse 
not  this  holy  vocation,  but  that  you  tender  the 
glory  of  God,  the  increase  of  Christ's  kingdom, 
the  edification  of  your  brethren,  and  the  comfort 
of  me,  whom  you  understand  well  enough  to  be 
oppressed  with  the  multitude  of  labours,  that  you 
take  upon  you  the  public  office  and  charge  of 
preaching,  even  as  you  look  to  avoid  God's  heavy 
displeasure  and  desire  that  He  shall  multiply  His 

1  History,  i.  186. 


JOHN  KNOX  23 

graces  with  you."  Then,  addressing  himself  to  the 
congregation,  he  demanded,  "  Was  not  this  your 
charge  to  me  ?  and  do  you  not  approve  this  voca- 
tion ?  "  They  answered  :  "It  was  ;  and  we  approve 
it."  Abashed  and  terrified,  Knox  fled  to  his 
chamber,  as  Saul,  in  similar  circumstances,  hid 
himself  among  the  stuff.  For  days  his  distress 
continued  ;  but,  when  he  came  forth  from  his 
privacy  and  ascended  the  pulpit,  it  was  to  deliver 
a  sermon  which  made  all  who  heard  it  aware  that 
a  prophet  had  risen  up  amongst  them.  Some  of 
the  listeners  said  :  "  Others  lop  off  the  branches  of 
the  papacy,  but  he  strikes  at  the  root,  to  destroy 
the  whole "  ;  others  said :  "If  the  doctors  and 
magistri  nostri  defend  not  now  the  Pope  and 
his  authority  which  in  their  own  presence  is  so 
manifestly  impugned,  the  Devil  have  my  part  of 
him  and  of  his  laws  likewise  "  ;  others  said  :  "  Master 
George  Wishart  spoke  never  so  plainly,  and  yet 
he  was  burnt  ;  even  so  will  he  be."  *  Thus  were 
the  lips  unsealed  which  had  been  kept  dumb  so 
long  and  the  sluices  opened  to  let  out  the  waters 
of  thought  and  conviction  which  had  so  long  been 
accumulating.  In  the  weeks  that  followed  there 
began  to  blossom  in  the  heart  of  Knox  that  peculiar 

1  History,  i.  192. 


24  JOHN  KNOX 

affection  which  knits  the  minister  of  the  Gospel 
to  those  for  whom  he  has  travailed  in  birth  till 
Christ  be  formed  in  them  ;  and  to  the  end  of  his 
life  he  cherished  towards  St.  Andrews  that  first 
love  which  a  pastor  feels  for  the  first  place  in  which 
he  has  exercised  his  ministry. 


CHAPTER     II. 
EXILE 

WHEN  the  garrison  of  St.  Andrews  had  to 
surrender,  Knox,  like  the  rest  of  the 
Castillians,  was  carried  off  to  captivity  in  France  ; 
and  it  was  his  hard  lot  to  be  sent  to  the  galleys. 
These  things  took  place  in  1547,  when  he  was 
two-and-forty  years  of  age.  He  was  a  man  rather 
under  the  middle  height,  with  broad  shoulders, 
swarthy  face,  black  hair,  and  a  beard  of  the  same 
colour  a  span-and-a-half  long.  He  had  heavy 
eyebrows,  beneath  which  the  eyes  were  deeply  sunk, 
while  the  cheekbones  were  prominent  and  the  cheeks 
ruddy.  The  mouth  was  large,  and  the  lips  full, 
especially  the  upper  one.  The  whole  aspect  of 
the  man  was  not  unpleasing  ;  and,  in  moments  of 
emotion,  it  was  invested  with  an  air  of  dignity 
and  majesty.  So  he  is  described  by  a  con- 
temporary, writing  carefully  for  the  purpose  of 
instructing  an  engraver  engaged  on  a  portrait  of 
the  subject.  The  late  Thomas  Carlyle,  in  an 
25 


26  JOHN  KNOX 

essay  which  he  wrote  in  old  age  on  the  portraits 
of  Knox,  expressed  strong  scepticism  as  to  the 
accuracy  of  the  traditional  bearded  portraits,  as 
being  too  sensational,  his  preference  being  given, 
on  internal  grounds,  to  what  is  known  as  the 
Somerville  Portrait,  which  is  that  of  an  extremely 
Scotch,  sensible,  good-humoured,  but  beardless  face. 
It  has,  however,  since  been  proved  by  Dr.  Hume 
Brown,  through  the  recovery  of  the  document  above 
quoted,  that  the  traditional  portrait  is  the  genuine  one.1 
The  face  is  more  that  of  a  French  or  Swiss  pastor 
than  of  an  ordinary  Scot  ;  and  the  copious  beard 
supplies  a  feature  which  in  any  age  must  have 
been  peculiar.  After  the  date  at  which  Knox 
entered  so  dramatically — holding  the  two-handed 
sword  in  front  of  Wishart — on  the  stage  of  public 
life,  he  was  to  live  other  five-and-twenty  years ; 
and  this  period  falls  into  two  halves  of  almost 
equal  length — the  first  from  1547  to  1559,  during 
which  he  was  out  of  his  native  country,  save  for 
one  somewhat  prolonged  visit  in  1555-6,  and  the 
second  from  1559  to  his  death  in  1572,  during 
which  he  was  hardly  ever  out  of  Scotland  and 
never  out  of  the  island  of  Britain. 

His  twelve  years  of  exile  commenced  with  about 
1  HUME  BROWN,  John  Knox,  ii.  320. 


JOHN  KNOX  27 

a  year-and-a-half  in  the  French  galleys,  where  he 
was  the  companion  of  convicts,  and  the  whip  of 
the  slave-driver  cracked  over  his  head.  The  galley 
in  which  he  was  confined,  Nostre  Dame  by  name, 
sailed  on  the  rivers  of  France,  and,  in  addition  to 
the  hardness  of  their  toil,  the  victims  of  justice 
were  galled  by  its  uselessness.  Dr.  Hume  Brown 
has  drawn,  from  official  sources,  a  picture  of  the 
life  of  the  galley-slaves  appalling  in  its  realism  ; 
but  there  is  room  to  hope  that,  in  Knox's  case 
at  least,  there  may  have  been  some  mitigation  of 
its  horrors  ;  for  during  this  time  he  edited,  annotated 
and  sent  home  to  the  friends  of  the  Reformation 
in  Scotland  a  treatise  which  a  fellow-prisoner, 
Henry  Balnaves,  already  mentioned,  had  written 
in  the  prison  of  Rouen  ;  and  such  literary  activity 
would  hardly  have  been  compatible  with  a  rigour  of 
discipline  as  unmitigated  as  Dr.  Hume  Brown  assumes 
to  have  prevailed.  Knox  tells  a  story  of  a  priest, 
who  ministered  to  the  prisoners,  carrying  round,  on 
one  of  the  festivals  of  the  Church,  the  image  of 
some  saint,  to  be  kissed  ;  whereupon  one  of  the 
prisoners  stoutly  refused  and,  when  the  holy  man 
insisted,  seized  the  painted  piece  of  wood  and, 
flinging  it  overboard,  exclaimed  :  "  Let  us  see  if  she 
can  swim  ;  she  is  light  enough."  Of  this  adventure 
Knox  is  generally  supposed  to  have  been  himself 


28  JOHN  KNOX 

the  hero  ;  but,  if  so,  the  fact  that  such  an  act  of 

insubordination  could  be  performed  with   impunity 

seems  to  indicate  that  the  discipline  was  not  very 

rigorous.     Another    sign    of  lax    discipline  is   that 

four   of  the    Castillians    managed    to   escape    from 

Mont   St.   Michel  ;    and   it  is  an  indication  of  the 

position  held  by  Knox  among  his  fellow-exiles  that, 

before  carrying  out  their  design,  they  consulted  him 

as  to  its  lawfulness.      His   reply  was    that,  if   they 

could    escape    without   shedding    any    man's  blood, 

the  attempt  might  lawfully  be   made.      And   made 

it  was  with  success  ;  but  so  many  vicissitudes  had 

the  runaways  to  encounter  that  Knox  was  in  England 

before  them.     On  one  occasion  the  galley  in  which 

he  was  chained  happened  to  sail  round  Scotland  ; 

and    it    passed  so  near  to  the  Fife  coast  that  the 

spires  of  St.  Andrews  could  be  seen  in  the  distance. 

Knox  happened  at  the  time  to  be  so  ill   that  his 

recovery    was    despaired  of ;  but,  when  a  comrade 

pointing     towards    the     land,     asked     him     if    he 

recognised    it,    "Yes,"  replied    the    invalid,    raising 

himself  on  his  elbow,  "  I  know  it  well  ;  for  I  see 

the  steeple  of  that  place  where  God  first  in  public 

opened    my  mouth  to  His  glory  ;  and   I  am  fully 

persuaded,    how    weak    soever    I  now  appear,   that 

I  shall  not  depart  this  life,  till  that  my  tongue  shall 

glorify  His  godly  name  in  the  same  place."     This 


JOHN  KNOX  29 

prophecy  was  destined  to  be  remarkably  fulfilled  ; 
and  it  was  only  one  of  many  instances  which 
caused  the  character  of  seer  or  prophet  to  be 
attributed  to  Knox,  both  by  others  and  himself,  as 
it  had  previously  been  to  Wishart  and  was  after- 
wards to  Peden  and  others  of  the  Scots  Worthies. 
The  comrade  who  succoured  Knox  on  this  occasion 
was  James  Balfour,  who  lived  to  be  Lord  President 
in  his  native  country,  but  became  to  Knox  an 
object  of  abhorrence,  because  he  appeared  to  him 
to  have  become  a  backslider  from  the  faith  and 
profession  of  his  youth  ;  and  this  was  not  the  only 
one  of  the  Castillians  who  subsequently  rose  high 
in  the  world  but,  in  the  course  of  so  doing,  lost 
the  ardour  of  his  youthful  convictions. 

Such  are  the  fragmentary  notices  which  can  be 
gleaned  from  this  painful  portion  of  Knox's  life. 
In  subsequent  years  he  did  not  like  to  speak  of  it  ; 
the  iron  had  entered  too  deeply  into  his  soul.  Never- 
theless he  derived  from  it  one  invaluable  lesson ; 
for  it  taught  him  to  pray.  In  A  Declaration  of 
tli£  True  Nature  and  Object  of  Prayer — one  of  the 
tenderest  things  he  ever  wrote — he  observes  : 
"  Trouble  and  fear  are  very  spurs  to  prayer ;  for, 
when  man,  compassed  about  with  vehement  calam- 
ities and  vexed  with  continual  solicitude,  having 
by  help  of  man  no  hope  of  deliverance,  with  sore 


3o  JOHN  KNOX 

oppressed  and  punished  heart,  fearing  also  greater 
punishment  to  follow,  from  the  deep  pit  of  tribula- 
tion doth  call  to  God  for  comfort  and  help,  such 
prayer  ascendeth  to  God's  presence  and  returneth 
not  in  vain.  For  I,  the  writer  hereof,  (let  this  be 
said  to  the  laud  and  praise  of  God  alone)  in  anguish 
of  mind  and  vehement  tribulation  and  affliction 
called  to  the  Lord,  when  not  only  the  ungodly 
but  even  my  faithful  brethren,  yea,  and  my  own 
self  judged  my  cause  to  be  irremediable.  And  yet 
in  my  greatest  calamity,  and  when  my  pains  were 
most  cruel,  would  His  eternal  wisdom  that  my 
hands  should  write  far  contrary  to  the  judgment 
of  carnal  reason,  which  His  mercy  hath  proved 
true,  blessed  be  His  name!  And,  therefore,  dare 
I  be  bold,  in  the  verity  of  God's  Word,  to  promise 
that,  notwithstanding  the  vehemency  of  trouble,  the 
long  continuance  thereof,  the  desperation  of  all  men, 
the  fearfulness,  danger,  dolour  and  anguish  of 
our  own  hearts,  if  we  call  constantly  to  God,  that 
beyond  expectation  of  all  men,  He  shall  deliver  !  " 
although  he  adds,  with  touching  brevity,  a  little 
later  :  "  How  hard  this  battle  is,  no  man  knoweth 
but  he  who  in  himself  hath  suffered  trial."  l 

So    shy    is    he    of  speech   on   the  subject  of  his 
1  Works,  iii.  90,  100. 


JOHN  KNOX  31 

imprisonment  that  he  has  not  informed  us  how 
it  came  to  an  end.  But  in  February  1549  he 
was  in  England  ;  and  all  the  Castillians  had  also 
been  set  free.  At  that  date  King  Edward  VI. 
had  already  been  for  two  years  on  the  throne 
of  England  ;  and  under  his  godly  encouragement 
the  work  of  reformation,  which  had  proceeded 
so  slowly  and  dubiously  during  the  reign  of  his 
father,  was  going  on  apace.  At  the  head  of 
ecclesiastical  affairs  was  Cranmer,  whose  views  were 
broad  and  statesmanlike.  The  Church  of  England 
had  not  then  taken  up  the  isolated  position  which 
it  has  since  adopted  among  the  Churches  of  the 
Reformation,  but  frankly  recognised  its  unity  with 
all  branches  of  the  Church  which  had  separated 
from  Rome ;  and  Archbishop  Cranmer  did  not 
scruple  to  lay  hold  of  men  of  talent,  professing 
the  Reformed  opinions,  wherever  he  could  find  them, 
and  to  send  them  forth  as  labourers  into  the  harvest, 
the  harvest  being  truly  great  and  the  labourers 
few.  From  the  Continental  Churches  he  introduced 
professors  to  the  theological  chairs  in  the  uni- 
versities ;  and  he  was  only  too  glad  to  secure  for  the 
pulpit  a  preacher  of  the  calibre  of  Knox  from  the 
Scottish  Church.  Accordingly  Knox  found  immediate 
employment ;  and  he  continued  in  the  service 
of  the  Church  of  England  for  the  next  five 


32  JOHN  KNOX 

years.1  No  question  about  his  orders  was  ever 
raised  ;  his  ability  to  do  the  work  was  the  only 
qualification  needed  ;  for  the  spirit  of  power  and  of 
love  and  of  a  sound  mind  was  then  breathing 
over  the  Churches  of  the  Reformation  from  end 
to  end,  imparting  to  them  a  catholicity  very  different 
from  the  sentiment  which  has  sometimes  since 
borne  that  name  falsely,  because  its  purpose  is  to 
exclude  and  not  to  include. 

He  was  employed  first  at  Berwick  and  subse- 
quently at  Newcastle-on-Tyne  ;  and  he  could  after- 
wards say  of  his  ministry  there  :  "  God  is  witness, 
and  I  refuse  not  your  own  judgments,  how  simply 
and  uprightly  I  conversed  and  walked  amongst  you. 
Though  in  His  presence  I  am  nothing  but  a  mass 
of  corruption,  rebellion  and  hypocrisy,  yet,  as  con- 
cerning you  and  the  doctrine  taught  amongst  you, 
as  then  I  walked,  so  now  do  I  write  in  the  presence 
of  Him  who  only  knoweth  and  shall  reveal  the 
secrets  of  all  hearts,  that  neither  for  fear  did  I  spare 
to  speak  the  simple  truth  to  you,  neither  for  hope 
of  worldly  promotion,  dignity  or  honour  did  I 
willingly  adulterate  any  part  of  God's  Scripture, 
whether  it  were  in  exposition,  in  preaching,  conten- 
tion or  writing,  but  that  simply  and  plainly,  as  it 
pleased  the  merciful  goodness  of  God  to  give  unto 
1  LORIMER  :  John  Knox  and  the  Church  of  England. 


JOHN  KNOX  33 

me  the  utterance,  understanding  and  spirit,  I  did 
distribute  the  bread  of  life  (I  mean  God's  most  holy 
Word)  as  of  Christ  Jesus  I  had  received  it.  I 
sought  neither  pre-eminence,  glory  nor  riches.  My 
honour  was  that  Christ  Jesus  should  reign,  my  glory 
that  the  light  of  His  truth  should  shine  in  you,  and 
my  greatest  riches  that  in  the  same  ye  should  be 
constant."  1 

But  higher  promotion  was  in  store  for  him.  In 
1551  he  was  appointed  one  of  the  six  Chaplains-in- 
Ordinary  to  the  King,  of  whom  two  in  turn  should 
always  be  resident  at  court,  while  the  other  four, 
when  not  thus  employed,  were  to  itinerate  in  destitute 
parts  of  the  country.  Thus  it  fell  to  Knox's  lot  to 
be  preacher  to  the  most  distinguished  and  influential 
audience  in  England  ;  and  this  position  involved 
him  in  delicate  operations,  which  were  at  that  time 
in  course  of  being  performed.  Thus,  in  1552  he 
had  a  hand  in  the  compilation  of  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  ;  and  he  is  known  to  have  procured 
the  insertion  of  a  rubric  explaining  that  by  the  act 
of  kneeling  at  the  reception  of  the  sacrament  no 
adoration  of  the  elements  is  intended,  "  for  that  were 
idolatry,  to  be  abhorred  of  all  faithful  Christians." 
"  A  runnagate  Scot,"  complained  a  controversialist 
in  the  reign  of  Mary  Tudor,  "did  take  away  the 
»  Works,  iii.  165. 

3 


34  JOHN  KNOX 

adoration  or  worshipping  of  Christ  in  the  sacrament  ; 
so  much  prevailed  that  one  man's  authority  at 
that  time."  In  like  manner  an  edition  of  the 
Articles  of  the  Church  of  England,  issued  in  this 
reign,  was  delivered  to  the  six  Royal  Chaplains,  of 
whom  Knox  was  one,  to  make  a  report  of  their 
opinion  touching  the  same,  and,  although  nothing 
can  be  pointed  out  in  the  Articles  which  indubitably 
came  from  his  hand,  he  was  not  the  man  to  let 
such  an  opportunity  pass  without  making  the  most 
of  it. 

If  he  did  not  remain  in  the  Church  of  England, 
it  was  not  because  that  body  was  unwilling  to 
retain  him,  but  because  he  was  unwilling  to  commit 
himself  unreservedly  to  it.  His  appointment  to  the 
See  of  Rochester  is  known  to  have  been  discussed 
in  the  highest  quarters,  and  it  was  probably  due  to 
his  own  disinclination  that  it  did  not  take  place. 
At  all  events  it  is  certain  that  he  was  offered  the 
living  of  All  Hallows,  in  Bread  Street,  London. 
Indeed,  his  refusal  of  this  preferment  caused  him 
to  be  called  before  the  Privy  Council,  where  were 
present  the  Bishops  of  Canterbury  and  Ely,  my  Lord 
Treasurer,  the  Marquis  of  Northampton,  the  Earl  of 
Bedford,  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  Master  Comptroller, 
my  Lord  Chamberlain,  both  the  Secretaries,  and  other 
inferior  Lords.  He  was  asked  three  questions — why 


JOHN  KNOX  35 

he  refused  the  benefice  provided  for  him  ;  whether 
he  thought  that  no  Christian  might  serve  in  the 
ecclesiastical  ministration  according  to  the  rites 
and  laws  of  the  realm  of  England;  and  whether 
kneeling  at  the  Lord's  Table  was  not  indifferent. 
To  the  first  he  answered  that  he  could  be  of  more 
use  elsewhere  than  in  London  ;  to  the  second,  that 
many  things  were  worthy  of  reformation  in  the 
ministry  of  England,  without  the  reformation  whereof 
no  minister  did  discharge  or  could  discharge  his 
conscience  before  God  ;  for  no  minister  in  England 
had  authority  to  divide  the  lepers  from  the  sound, 
though  this  was  a  chief  point  of  his  office  ;  yet 
did  he  not  refuse  such  office  as  might  appear  to 
promote  God's  glory  in  utterance  of  Christ's  Gospel 
in  a  mean  degree,  where  more  he  might  edify  by 
preaching  of  the  true  Word  than  hinder  by  suffer- 
ance of  manifest  iniquity,  seeing  that  reformation  of 
manners  did  not  appertain  to  all  ministers.  To 
the  third  he  answered,  that  Christ's  action  in  itself 
was  most  perfect,  and  Christ's  action  was  done 
without  kneeling  ;  that  kneeling  was  man's  addition 
or  imagination  ;  that  it  was  most  sure  to  follow 
the  example  of  Christ,  whose  action  was  done  sitting 
and  not  kneeling.  It  is  strange  to  think  of  such 
principalities  and  powers  listening  to  such  replies 
or  asking  such  questions.  Yet,  after  long  reasoning, 


36  JOHN  KNOX 

it  was  said  unto  him,  that  he  was  not  called  of  any 
evil  mind  ;  they  were  sorry  to  know  him  of  a 
contrary  mind  to  the  Common  Order.  He  answered 
that  he  was  more  sorry  that  a  Common  Order 
should  be  contrary  to  Christ's  institution.  With 
some  gentle  speeches  he  was  dismissed.1  But  he 
continued  after  this  to  discharge  his  functions  as 
before  ;  and  we  find  him  itinerating,  not  only  in 
the  North,  but  in  Buckinghamshire  and  Kent. 

Of  Edward  VI.  Knox  had  formed  the  very 
highest  opinion.  "  We  had,"  says  he,  "  a  king  of 
so  godly  disposition  towards  virtue  and  the  truth 
of  God,  that  none  from  the  beginning  passed  him, 
and  to  my  knowledge,  none  of  his  years  did  ever 
match  him."  But  of  the  courtiers  and  statesmen 
by  whom  the  youthful  monarch  was  surrounded  his 
estimate  was  very  different  ;  and  he  prophesied 
distinctly  what  a  backsliding  there  was  likely  to  be 
in  England,  if  a  Romanist  should  come  to  the  throne 
and  the  wind  of  persecution  begin  to  blow  upon  the 
religion  which  had  sprung  up  like  the  gourd  of 
Jonah  in  the  sunshine  of  the  court.  Already  Knox 
had  acquired  the  habit,  of  which  no  injunctions  to 
the  contrary  could  ever  cure  him,  of  introducing  into 
his  sermons  allusions  of  the  most  uncompromising 
character  to  current  events.  In  the  very  last  sermon 
1  Works,  iii.  87. 


JOHN  KNOX  37 

which  he  preached  before  the  King,  taking  for  his  text 
the  words,  "  He  that  eateth  bread  with  me  hath  lifted 
up  his  heel  against  me,"  he  proceeded  to  observe 
that  commonly  the  most  godly  princes  had  officers 
and  chief  councillors  most  ungodly.  Were  David 
and  Hezekiah,  he  asked,  princes  of  great  and  godly 
gifts  and  experience,  abused  by  crafty  councillors 
and  dissembling  hypocrites  ?  "  What  wonder  is  it, 
then,  that  a  young  and  innocent  King  be  deceived 
by  crafty,  covetous,  wicked  and  ungodly  councillors  ? 
I  am  greatly  afraid  that  Achitophel  be  councillor, 
that  Judas  bear  the  purse,  and  that  Shebna  be  scribe, 
comptroller,  and  treasurer."  l  And  there  could  be 
no  doubt  to  which  persons  in  the  auditory  these 
terms  applied. 

In  July  1553  the  precocious  but  delicate  monarch 
sank  into  the  grave  ;  and,  the  following  month,  his 
sister  Mary  came  to  the  throne.  A  few  months  of 
grace  were  allowed  to  the  Protestants  ;  but,  before 
the  end  of  the  year,  the  Roman  Catholic  reaction 
had  set  in  with  irresistible  force ;  and  it  was 
dangerous  for  prominent  professors  of  the  Reformed 
religion  to  be  seen  on  the  soil  of  England.  Knox 
lingered  as  long  as  he  dared,  still  prosecuting  the 
work  of  preaching  the  Gospel  after  the  time  of 
grace  had  expired  ;  and  he  went  out  of  the  country 
1  Works,  iii.  282 


38  JOHN  KNOX 

only  with  compunction  ;  but  at  length  the  per- 
suasions of  his  friends  prevailed ;  and  in  March 
1554  he  found  himself  at  Dieppe,  facing  a  new 
period  of  exile  on  the  Continent,  which  was  to  last 
as  long  as  the  reign  of  the  Queen. 

He  had  no  place  to  go  to  ;  and,  in  spite  of 
his  incessant  labours  in  the  service  of  the  Church 
of  England,  he  was  so  poor  that  he  was  under  the 
necessity  of  appealing  almost  immediately  to  private 
friends  in  England  for  the  means  of  procuring  daily 
bread.  After  some  uncertain  movements  from  place 
to  place,  in  the  course  of  which  he  came  into  personal 
relations  with  several  eminent  Continental  Reformers, 
he  arrived  in  Geneva,  where  he  had  the  privilege  of 
forming  the  acquaintance  of  Calvin,  then  near  the 
height  of  his  influence.  By  his  advice  he  accepted 
an  invitation  to  become  the  pastor,  or  rather  one 
of  the  pastors,  of  the  English  congregation  at 
Frankfort-on-the-Main  ;  and  in  this  position  he  was 
settled  before  the  end  of  the  year. 

This  English  congregation  in  a  foreign  city  was 
composed  of  exiles  and  their  families,  who  had  fled 
from  England  to  escape  from  the  persecution  of  the 
reigning  monarch.  Settlements  of  similar  character 
had  at  the  same  time  been  formed  at  other  places 
on  the  Continent,  such  as  Zurich  and  Strasbourg  ; 


JOHN  KNOX  39 

but  Frankfort  proved  the  favourite  place  of  resort, 
because  the  use  of  a  church  had  been  granted  to 
the  exiles  by  the  magistrates.  The  use  of  the 
same  building  had  been  previously  obtained  by 
a  Walloon  congregation,  which  had  fled  from 
England  on  the  accession  of  Mary,  and  to  the 
English  the  privilege  was  granted  on  condition  that 
they  employed  the  service  of  this  French  congrega- 
tion— a  condition  which  was  understood  to  be 
sufficiently  fulfilled  by  the  employment  of  the 
English  Prayer  Book,  with  the  litany  and  the 
responses  left  out  and  a  few  other  slight  modifica- 
tions introduced.  Such  alterations  suited  Knox 
well  enough,  the  portions  left  out  being  precisely 
those  to  which  he  had  already  in  England  expressed 
conscientious  objections  ;  and  there  were  other 
persons  in  the  congregation  to  whom  this  modified 
Prayer  Book  was  more  acceptable  than  the  original. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  was  a  party  who  would 
have  preferred  the  book  unaltered.  All,  however, 
was  going  with  tolerable  smoothness,  till  a  further 
party  of  exiles  from  England  arrived  on  the  scene, 
certain  aggressive  members  of  which,  the  first 
Sunday  they  were  in  church,  gave  the  responses 
at  the  points  at  which  they  had  been  accustomed 
to  do  so  in  England  ;  and,  the  following  Sunday, 
they  contrived  to  have  the  litany  read.  Knox,  in 


40  JOHN  KNOX 

preaching,  represented  to  them  the  disorderliness 
of  their  conduct  in  interfering  with  an  arrangement 
agreed  to  before  their  arrival  and  laid  down  by 
the  magistrates  as  the  condition  on  which  the  use 
of  the  church  had  been  allowed.  But  there  was 
an  element  in  the  congregation  favourable  to  the 
Prayer  Book  as  it  was  ;  and  the  newcomers  carried 
things  with  a  high  hand.  They  were  not  yet,  indeed, 
members  of  the  congregation,  and,  by  keeping  them 
out,  Knox  might  have  had  a  majority  favourable 
to  his  own  views.  He,  however,  disdained  to  make 
use  of  this  advantage  ;  and  they  were  no  sooner 
in  the  majority  than  they  proceeded  to  use  their 
strength  against  him  and  his  supporters.  Then 
ensued  a  storm  in  a  teapot,  the  minute  details  of 
which  are  still  traceable,  if  it  were  worth  while  ; l 
and  it  has  been  said  that  the  contest  was  the  entire 
Puritan  Period  in  miniature.  In  the  end  Knox's 
opponents  resorted  to  the  use  of  an  equivocal 
measure  by  which  the  controversy  was  ended  as 
far  as  he  was  concerned  :  carrying  to  the  magistrates 
a  copy  of  a  pamphlet  which  he  had  recently 
published,  entitled  A  Faithful  Admonition  to 
England,  they  pointed  out  several  references  to  the 
Queen  of  England  and  to  her  husband,  Philip  of 
Spain,  of  a  character  so  unparliamentary  that  the 
1  Works,  iv.  i  ff. 


JOHN  KNOX  41 

City  of  Frankfort  might,  it  was  suggested,  become 
obnoxious  to  these  potentates,  if  it  was  known  to 
be  harbouring  the  man  who  had  made  them.  This 
device  was  successful,  the  magistrates  requesting 
Knox  to  quit  the  city. 

He  returned  to  Geneva  ;  and  with  him  went 
such  of  those  who  had  been  on  his  side  in  the 
controversy  as  were  in  a  position  to  change  their 
residence.  By  these  was  formed  at  Geneva  a 
refugee  congregation,  which  grew  till  it  numbered 
over  two  hundred  members.  Of  this  body  Knox 
became  pastor,  or  rather  one  of  the  pastors ;  for  he 
had  as  colleague  Christopher  Goodman,  who  was  to 
be  closely  associated  with  him  in  more  phases  than 
one  of  his  subsequent  history.  Hardly  had  Knox, 
however,  commenced  his  labours  in  this  new  sphere 
when  he  was  called  away  to  visit  his  native  country, 
in  which  he  stayed  from  September  1555  to 
July  1556. 

Six  years  had  elapsed  since  he  had  left  Scotland  ; 
and  in  the  interval  events  had  been  marching  at  a 
rate  of  which  Knox  himself  had  had  no  conception  ; 
the  result  being  that  he  received  a  welcome  far 
beyond  his  expectations.  Partly  the  change  was 
due  to  the  growing  intelligence  of  the  country  and 
to  the  utter  inability  of  the  Catholic  Church,  as  it 


42  JOHN  KNOX 

then  existed,  to  stand  the  least  inquiry.  Of  this  a 
pathetic  proof  had  been  given  in  the  year  in  which 
Knox  had  left  the  country,  when  a  Provincial  Synod 
passed  no  fewer  than  sixty-eight  statutes  of  a  re- 
formatory character,  in  which  it  was  confessed  that 
the  root  and  cause  of  the  troubles  and  heresies 
which  afflicted  the  Church  were  the  corruption,  the 
profane  lewdness,  the  gross  ignorance  of  churchmen 
of  almost  all  ranks,  particulars  being  added  too  un- 
savoury for  quotation.  Partly  it  was  due  to  the 
influx  into  Scotland,  on  the  accession  of  Mary  in 
England,  of  Protestants  who  might  hope  for  less 
inquisition  there  into  their  beliefs  ;  among  whom 
were  such  ministers  as  Harlaw  and  Willock,  who 
became  extremely  useful  in  the  North.  From 
Edinburgh,  on  9  November,  Knox  writes  :  "  Albeit 
my  journey  toward  Scotland  was  most  contrary 
to  my  own  judgment,  yet  this  day  I  praise  God 
for  them  whom  he  made  the  instrument  to  draw 
me  from  the  den  of  my  own  ease,  to  contemplate 
and  behold  the  fervent  thirst  of  our  brethren, 
night  and  day  sobbing  and  groaning  for  the  bread 
of  life.  If  I  had  not  seen  it  with  mine  eyes  in  my 
own  country,  I  could  not  have  believed  it."  And  a 
little  later  he  writes  :  "  The  trumpet  blew  the  old 
sound  three  days  together,  till  private  houses  of  in- 
different largeness  could  not  contain  the  voice  of  it. 


JOHN  KNOX  43 

Oh,  sweet  were  the  death  that  should  follow  such 
forty  days  in  Edinburgh  as  here  I  have  had 
three  ! "  It  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  Knox 
returned  to  his  native  land  surrounded  with  a 
halo  of  prestige  due  to  his  association  with  the 
leaders  of  thought  and  action  in  other  countries  ; 
but  more  is  required  to  explain  a  success  like  this. 

Among  his  hearers  in  Edinburgh  were  many 
solid  and  excellent  citizens,  the  names  of  some  of 
whom  he  gives,  though  they  are  now  forgotten,  and 
honourable  women  not  a  few.  Of  figures  more 
notable  were  young  Maitland  of  Lethington,  whose 
subsequent  course  was  to  be  so  ambiguous,  and 
Erskine  of  Dun,  who  was  always  faithful  and  con- 
tinued throughout  the  subsequent  years  to  be  an 
ornament  to  the  cause  to  which  he  was  attached. 
By  the  latter  Knox  was  taken  to  his  residence  in 
Forfarshire,  where  he  entered  into  the  labours  of  his 
predecessor  Wishart  with  much  success.  Later  his 
headquarters  were  at  Calder  House,  near  Midcalder, 
where  not  only  did  Sir  James  Calder  and  his  sons 
espouse  the  cause,  but  round  the  preacher  were 
gathered  young  men  destined  to  rise  to  positions 
of  the  greatest  influence  in  their  native  country — 
Lord  Erskine,  the  future  Earl  of  Mar  ;  Lord  Lorn, 
afterwards  Earl  of  Argyle  ;  and  Lord  James  Stewart, 
afterwards  the  Regent  Moray.  From  here  he  passed 


44  JOHN  KNOX 

to  Ayrshire  and  Lanarkshire,  where  the  ground  had 
been  prepared  by  the  Lollards  of  Kyle,  already 
mentioned  ;  and  here,  among  other  men  of  distinction, 
the  Earl  of  Glencairn  joined  him,  proving  to  be  of 
inestimable  value  to  the  cause  in  subsequent  years. 
By  Glencairn  another  great  noble,  the  Earl  Marischal, 
was  brought  into  contact  with  Knox,  whom  he 
persuaded  to  write  a  letter  to  the  Queen  Regent ; 
for  they  were  at  the  stage  when  young  converts 
believe  that  the  truth  has  only  to  be  set  forth  in  its 
naked  simplicity  to  win  universal  assent.  Knox 
penned  the  letter,  putting  into  it  not  only  the  pith 
of  his  reasoning  power  but  the  utmost  courtesy  of 
which  he  was  capable.  But  they  were  to  learn  the 
lesson  that  Old  Adam  is  too  strong  for  young 
Melanchthon  ;  for  Mary  of  Lorraine,  having  perused 
it,  handed  it  to  the  Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  who 
was  standing  by,  with  the  remark  :  "  Please  you, 
my  lord,  to  read  a  pasquil " — a  remark  which,  when 
Knox  heard  of  it,  entered  like  iron  into  his  soul. 
Thus  was  Knox  permitted  for  months  to  go 
unchallenged  up  and  down  the  country,  by  the 
attraction  of  his  personality  and  the  persuasion  of 
his  preaching  winning  adherents  of  great  weight 
and  in  surprising  numbers  to  the  cause.  But  at 
length  the  sleeping  enemy  awoke ;  and  he  was 
summoned  to  answer  for  himself  in  the  Church  of 


JOHN  KNOX  45 

the  Black-friars  in  Edinburgh.  Though  well  aware 
that  the  fate  of  Patrick  Hamilton  and  George 
Wishart  was  probably  in  store  for  him,  he 
answered  the  summons,  appearing  at  the  appointed 
day  and  hour.  But  the  opposite  party  took  fright 
and  deserted  the  diet ;  whereupon  he  went  on 
preaching  in  Edinburgh  to  still  larger  audiences. 
But  the  situation  could  not  have  lasted  much  longer 
as  it  was  ;  and  it  was  well  that,  at  the  critical 
juncture,  he  received  a  summons,  which  he  did  not 
feel  himself  entitled  to  disobey,  to  return  to  his 
charge  at  Geneva. 

The  value  of  this  visit  to  his  native  country 
had  been  incalculable.  The  men  and  women  whom 
he  was  privileged  to  bring  to  decision  proved  to 
be  those  on  whom  the  whole  weight  of  the  cause 
was  subsequently  to  rest,  and  they  felt  for  him 
the  affection  and  devotion  due  to  the  man  to 
whom  they  owed  themselves.  Wherever  he  had 
gone,  he  had  dispensed  the  Lord's  Supper  in 
the  simple  form  of  the  Reformed  Church  ;  and 
people,  long  accustomed  to  the  wearisome  celebra- 
tion of  the  Mass  in  a  strange  tongue,  felt  the 
charm  of  the  unadorned  function  and  entered  into 
the  communion  of  saints.  He  strongly  dissuaded 
them  from  attending  Mass  ;  and,  from  this  time 
forward,  this  became  the  mark  of  thorough  and 


46  JOHN  KNOX 

entire  religious  decision.  He  did  not,  however, 
merely  enjoin  this,  but  argued  the  question  out 
with  such  disputants  as  Maitland  of  Lethington, 
so  that  they  might  have  a  reason  in  themselves 
for  the  line  of  conduct  they  pursued.-  ••';  He  left 
behind  him  directions  for  conducting  the  devotional 
meetings  in  which  they  were  to  search  the  Scriptures 
and  edify  one  another.  He  was  even  implored  by 
the  female  portion  of  his  adherents  to  guide  them 
as  to  the  garments  it  would  be  proper  for  women 
professing  godliness  to  wear  ;  and  this  responsibility 
he  did  not  decline,  his  opinion  on  this  ticklish 
subject  being  still  accessible.1 

There  had  been  another  reason  for  this  visit 
of  Knox  to  his  native  country  besides  the  public 
one.  While  engaged  as  a  preacher  in  Northumber- 
land five  years  before,  he  had  formed  the  acquaint- 
ance of  the  family  of  Richard  Bowes,  Captain  of 
Norham  Castle.  With  this  man's  wife,  who  was 
the  daughter  of  Roger  Aske,  of  Aske  in  Yorkshire, 
he  had  formed  a  close  intimacy,  acting  to  her  as 
spiritual  guide,  she  being  of  a  rare  intelligence 
but  of  a  scrupulous  conscience  and,  for  this  reason, 
making  constant  demands  upon  the  sympathy  of 
her  friend,  who  responded  to  them  in  a  correspon- 
dence which  forms  one  of  the  most  characteristic 
1  Works ;  iv.  225  ff. 


JOHN  KNOX  47 

portions  of  his  literary  legacy.  In  the  course  of 
his  intercourse  with  the  mother,  he  formed  an 
attachment  for  her  daughter  Marjory  ;  and,  in  spite 
of  the  opposition  of  her  father  and  some  other 
members  of  the  family,  they  were  engaged  to  be 
married  before  he  left  England  ;  and  now,  as  he 
quitted  Scotland,  to  return  to  Geneva,  they  were 
wedded  ;  and  he  took  back  with  him  not  her 
only  but  Mrs.  Bowes  as  well.  This  event  in 
Knox's  life  did  not  cause  the  same  amount  of 
scandal  as  did  the  marriage  of  Martin  Luther,  the 
world  having  become  accustomed  to  the  spectacle 
of  the  marriage  of  men  who  had  once,  as  priests 
or  friars,  taken  the  vow  of  celibacy.  He  was  to 
give  more  cause  for  the  derision  of  the  profane 
when,  Marjory  Bowes  having  died  in  1560,  he 
married  again  in  1564,  at  the  age  of  fifty-nine, 
his  bride  being  a  girl  of  sixteen  or  seventeen.  By 
his  first  wife  he  had  two  sons,  one  of  whom 
became  a  clergyman  in  the  Church  of  England, 
and  by  the  second  three  daughters,  one  of  whom 
became  the  heroic  Mrs.  Welsh  of  Ayr. 

For  the  next  three  years  Knox  was  minister 
of  the  English  congregation  of  Geneva ;  and  this 
was  the  most  tranquil  period  of  his  life.  Of  the 
sublime  scenery  of  the  Alps  he  never,  indeed, 


48  JOHN  KNOX 

says  a  word  ;  but  such  silence  was  the  custom  of 
the  age  ;  and  he  must  have  felt  the  influences  of 
nature  whether  he  was  conscious  of  them  or  not. 
Of  other  advantages  of  his  place  of  abode  he  was 
well  aware.  "  I  neither  fear,"  he  remarks,  "  nor 
ashame  to  say  that  Geneva  is  the  most  perfect  school 
of  Christ  that  ever  was  in  the  earth  since  the  days 
of  the  Apostles.  In  other  places  I  confess  Christ 
to  be  truly  preached ;  but  manners  and  religion 
so  truly  reformed  I  have  not  yet  seen  in  any 
other  place."  l  Such  was  the  result  of  the  vision 
of  a  city  of  God  on  earth  which  had  formed  itself 
in  the  mind  of  Calvin  and  of  the  force  of  will 
with  which  that  great  man  had  impressed  his  own 
ideas  on  the  minds  of  his  fellow-citizens.  Knox, 
along  with  his  colleague  Goodman,  was  admitted 
to  citizenship  in  1558.  Of  actual  intercourse  of 
his  own  with  Calvin  we  have  comparatively  little 
record  ;  but  the  two  were  so  near  of  kin  in  spirit 
and  aims  that  their  fellowship  must  have  been 
close  and  cordial  ;  and  it  is  delightful  to  think  of 
these  two  pacing  the  margin  of  the  lovely  Lake, 
absorbed  in  conversation  on  the  highest  themes. 
Though  the  elder  of  the  two,  Knox  always  speaks 
with  veneration  of  his  friend,  as  "that  singular 
instrument  of  Christ  Jesus  in  the  glory  of  His 
1  Works,  iv.  240. 


JOHN  KNOX  49 

Gospel."  "  From  him,"  he  adds,  "  we  must  confess, 
except  that  we  would,  in  concealing  the  truth, 
declare  ourselves  to  be  unthankful,  that  we  all 
have  received  comfort,  light  and  erudition." 1  Of 
other  persons  of  culture  the  city  at  that  time 
contained  not  a  few  ;  such,  for  example,  as  those 
who  were  engaged  in  translating  the  Geneva  Bible ; 
and  in  Knox's  own  congregation  there  were  persons 
of  honour,  quality  and  estate,  many  of  them  divines 
and  students  of  divinity,  besides  merchants,  trades- 
men and  husbandmen. 

In  intercourse  with  friends  like  these  his  mind 
was  stimulated,  and  he  had  leisure  both  to  read 
and  think.  Hence  it  is  not  surprising  that  it  is 
to  these  three  years  that  the  fullest  statements  of 
his  opinions,  both  theological  and  political,  belong. 
His  longest  theological  production,  a  treatise  on 
Predestination,  was  a  task  imposed  on  him  by  the 
divines  with  whom  he  was  associated  at  Geneva, 
and  it  was  sanctioned  by  the  authorities  of  that 
city.  The  discussion  of  the  subject  of  which  it 
treated  had  waxed  hot  in  Switzerland  a  little 
earlier  ;  and  the  author  of  the  English  work  which 
Knox  was  appointed  to  answer  had  borrowed  his 
arguments  from  the  opponents  of  Calvin  in  that 
country — Servetus,  Bolsec  and  Castellio.  The  most 
1  Works,  v.  169. 

4 


50  JOHN  KNOX 

notorious  political  treatise  of  Knox,  on  the  contrary, 
The  Monstrous  Regiment  of  Women,  was  written 
without  consultation  with  Calvin,  and  was  vigorously 
repudiated  by  that  divine,  when  it  became  apparent 
how  much  it  was  fitted  to  injure  the  cause  of  the 
Reformation.  It  was  directed  against  Mary  of 
Lorraine  and  Bloody  Mary ;  but  the  latter  died 
immediately  after  its  publication  ;  and  Elizabeth, 
who  succeeded,  though  a  Protestant,  disliked  not 
only  the  book  itself  but  the  man  who  had  written 
it,  and  the  city  from  which  it  had  been  issued,  almost 
as  much  as  Mary,  had  she  lived,  could  have  done. 

It  was  actually  written  at  Dieppe,  where  Knox 
had  arrived  in  1557,  intending  to  proceed  to  Scot- 
land, from  which  an  invitation  to  return  had  reached 
him,  signed  by  several  of  the  most  influential  of 
the  adherents  of  the  Reformation.  But  they  changed 
their  minds  and  intercepted  him  with  an  order 
not  to  come  any  further,  the  time  being  not  yet 
ripe. .  For  weeks  he  stayed  with  impatience  in  the 
seaport,  waiting  for  further  orders  ;  while  he  waited, 
the  fire  burned,  and  he  threw  off  this  unfortunate 
pamphlet,  to  relieve  his  feelings.  It  brought  him 
subsequently  a  world  of  trouble,  and  he  had  to 
try  to  explain  it  away  both  to  Queen  Elizabeth 
and  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  ;  but  as  to  the  main 
positions  of  the  book  he  died  impenitent. 


JOHN  KNOX  51 

It  is  more  pleasant  to  remember  that  during 
the  weeks  he  stayed  at  Dieppe  he  preached  in  the 
town  and  may  almost  be  called  the  founder  of 
the  vigorous  Protestant  Church  which  subsequently 
flourished  there.  He  also  visited,  before  returning 
to  Geneva,  Rochelle  and  other  Protestant  centres 
in  the  West  of  France.  Indeed,  he  was  thoroughly 
familiar  with  the  condition  of  the  French  Church, 
and  he  translated  into  English  an  official  account, 
which  the  Huguenots  had  issued,  of  a  cruel  massacre 
of  which  they  had  been  the  victims  in  Paris.  We 
may  close  this  section  of  his  life  with  a  moving 
story  from  this  little-known  document,  or  rather 
from  an  editorial  addition,  made  by  Knox  himself: 
"  Among  others,  God  now  of  late  days  hath  so 
triumphed  in  the  death  of  a  tender  child  of  sixteen 
years  of  age,  that  the  very  blind  people  are  compelled 
to  confess  that  the  mighty  power  of  God  worketh 
above  nature  with  the  sufferers,  and  openly  fighteth 
against  our  enemies.  This  young  gentleman,  con- 
demned to  be  burnt  quick,  was  laid  upon  a  manner 
of  a  wheel l  above  the  fire,  his  face  upward  ;  but, 
as  God's  good  pleasure  and  providence  was,  his 
tongue  was  not  cut  out,  but  a  great  piece  of  wood 
was  put  in  his  mouth,  bound  with  a  cord  behind 
his  neck.  When  the  fire  had  so  long  burnt  that 


52  JOHN  KNOX 

the  cord  was  consumed,  and  so  the  stick  fell  forth 
of  his  mouth,  he  began,  when  no  life  appeared  to 
have  remained,  most  comfortably  to  sing  the  Fortieth 
Psalm  of  David,  having  this  beginning  :  '  Patiently 
have  I  abidden  the  Lord,  who  is  eternal,  and  He 
hath  inclined  Himself  unto  me  and  hath  heard 
my  cry.  He  hath  delivered  me  from  the  horrible 
pit,  yea,  from  the  pit  of  dolour,  and  hath  placed  my 
feet  upon  a  sure  rock.  He  hath  put  a  new  song  in 
my  mouth,  yea,  a  thanksgiving  unto  our  God. 
Many,  seeing  this,  shall  fear  the  Lord  and  put  their 
trust  in  Him.  Blessed  is  the  man  that  setteth  his 
hope  on  the  Lord  and  turneth  not  unto  the  proud 
and  unto  such  as  go  about  with  lies.'  And  did  so 
proceed  unto  the  end  of  the  psalm,  at  the  last  verse 
whereof  he  rendered  his  spirit,  as  it  had  been  with- 
out pain,  to  the  great  and  most  singular  comfort  of 
all  faithful,  and  to  the  fear,  confusion  and  shame  of 
those  cruel  tyrants."  l 

1  Works,  iv.  301. 


CHAPTER     III. 

THE   SCOTTISH    REFORMATION 

MARY,  QUEEN  OF  ENGLAND,  having  died 
on  17  November  1558  the  exiles  who  were 
dispersed  over  the  Continent,  trooped  home  ;  and  in 
Geneva  Knox  had  no  longer  a  congregation  to 
which  to  minister.  Accordingly  he  left  that  city  for 
good  in  the  following  January.  But,  for  the  reason 
already  mentioned,  he  was  not  permitted  to  set  foot 
in  England,  even  for  the  purpose  of  passing  through 
it  to  Scotland  ;  and  it  was  not  till  the  month  of 
May  that  he  arrived  in  Edinburgh.  On  his  voyage, 
however,  he  became  privy  to  a  secret,  which  he 
hoped,  not  without  reason,  might  yet  open  his  way 
to  the  favour  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  which  for  the  time 
he  had  forfeited.  In  the  vessel  in  which  he  sailed 
there  was  a  great  seal,  graven  with  the  arms  of 
France,  England  and  Scotland,  and  with  a  style  for 
the  French  king  and  queen,  naming  them  king  and 
queen  of  these  three  countries.  Of  this  jewel,  as  he 
53 


54  JOHN  KNOX 

calls  it,  Knox  procured  a  sight,  and  he  treasured 
this  as  a  state  secret  of  importance,  to  be  divulged 
at  some  favourable  opportunity.  The  king  and 
queen  who  thus  made  pretentions  to  the  throne  of 
England,  in  rivalry  to  Elizabeth,  were  the  Dauphin, 
afterwards  Francis  II.  of  France,  and  Mary  Stuart, 
afterwards  the  Queen  of  Scots,  who  had  been  wedded 
in  1558. 

Knox's  arrival  in  his  native  country  took  place 
at  a  critical  moment ;  indeed,  it  proved  to  be  so 
well-timed  that  devout  students  of  history  have 
recognised  in  this  the  special  providence  of  God. 

Three  years  had  elapsed  since  his  last  visit  ;  and 
in  the  interval  the  tide  had  been  flowing  strongly  in 
favour  of  the  Reformation.  Mary  of  Lorraine,  who 
had  been  Regent  since  1554,  had  found  it  expedient 
in  her  own  interest  to  encourage  the  Protestant 
nobles.  These,  in  the  year  1557,  had  formed  an 
agreement  among  themselves,  called  the  Band,  in 
which  they  vowed  to  employ  their  whole  power, 
substance  and  very  lives  to  maintain,  set  forward 
and  establish  the  blessed  Word  of  God  and  of  His 
congregation.  From  this  time  they  were  denominated 
the  Lords  of  the  Congregation,  the  Congregation 
being  the  name  by  which  those  who  favoured  the 
new  religion  were  known.  They  were  even  so  bold 
as  to  approach  the  Regent  with  a  petition  for  the 


JOHN  KNOX  55 

right  of  public  and  private  prayer  in  the  vulgar 
tongue,  of  explaining  and  expounding  the  Scriptures, 
and  of  communion  in  both  kinds  ;  and  they  humbly 
required  that  means  should  be  taken  for  the  reform 
of  the  wicked,  slanderous  and  detestable  lives  of 
prelates  and  the  state  ecclesiastical.  In  1559 
another  Council  met,  which  passed  many  resolutions 
for  reform,  the  very  terms  of  which  are  the  best 
evidence  of  the  charges  made  by  Protestants  against 
the  old  Church  ;  these  measures,  however,  proved, 
like  others  which  had  preceded  them,  to  be  only 
reforms  on  paper,  the  Church  being  too  corrupt  to 
reform  itself.  Meanwhile  the  preachers  of  the 
Gospel  were  so  multiplying  in  numbers  and  growing 
so  bold  that  more  than  once  the  Regent  summoned 
them  to  her  presence,  with  the  intention  of  silencing 
them  ;  but,  when  they  appeared,  they  were  accom- 
panied by  so  many  supporters  that  she  was  fain 
to  dismiss  them  with  nothing  done. 

At  heart,  however,  she  was  a  thorough  papist, 
her  secret  determination  being  to  subject  the 
country  religiously  to  the  see  of  Rome  and 
politically  to  the  power  of  France.  She  had  filled 
the  country  with  French  soldiers,  who  devoured  it 
unmercifully  and  perpetrated  every  insolence  ;  and 
at  length,  after  the  crown  matrimonial  had  been 
bestowed  on  her  son-in-law,  she  considered  that  the 


56  JOHN  KNOX 

hour  had  come  for  throwing  off  the  mask.  Accord- 
ingly the  preachers  were  summoned  to  appear 
before  her  at  Stirling  on  10  May  1559.  They 
prepared  to  obey  the  summons  ;  but  the  men  of 
Montrose  and  Dundee,  with  others  from  the  sur- 
rounding parts  of  Forfarshire  and  Fife,  accompanied 
them  in  arms  as  far  as  Perth  ;  and  in  the  Dundee 
contingent  John  Knox  made  his  appearance,  having 
arrived  in  Edinburgh  on  the  second  of  the  month. 

The  Regent  had,  in  fact,  evoked  civil  war,  which 
went  on  without  intermission  till  her  death.  Its 
first  centre  was  Perth,  between  which  place  and 
Stirling,  where  the  Queen  Regent  lay,  complex 
negotiations  went  on.  Meantime  Knox  was  preach- 
ing in  the  Fair  City,  his  voice  rising  like  a  trumpet 
over  the  confusion  of  the  times  ;  and  in  connection 
with  his  preaching  there  broke  out  the  spoliation 
of  the  holy  places  of  the  old  religion,  which  has 
been  so  often  made  a  serious  charge  against  him. 
According  to  his  own  account,  this  began  accident- 
ally. After  a  sermon  against  idolatry,  a  priest 
commenced  to  say  Mass ;  whereupon  a  boy  used 
some  abusive  language ;  whereat  the  priest  struck 
him  a  blow  ;  then  the  lad  threw  a  stone,  which 
struck  the  altar  at  which  the  priest  was  ministering  ; 
whereupon  confusion  broke  loose,  and  none  could 
stop  it.  Thus  were  the  houses  of  the  Grey  and 


JOHN  KNOX  57 

the  Black  Friars  and  the  Charterhouse  Monks 
destroyed  "  by  the  hands,"  says  Knox,  "  not  of  the 
gentlemen,  neither  of  them  that  were  earnest 
professors,  but  of  the  rascal  multitude."  He  and 
others,  a  little  later,  attempted  to  stop  similar 
proceedings  at  the  Abbey  and  the  Palace  of  Scone, 
refusing  to  speak  to  the  rioters  from  Dundee 
who  had  done  the  violence.  But  similar  acts  of 
desecration  accompanied  his  preaching  soon  after- 
wards at  St.  Andrews  ;  and  the  destructive  mania 
spread  far  and  wide  to  other  places.  Knox  would 
have  preferred  an  orderly  destruction  of  the  symbols 
of  idolatry  by  the  action  of  lawful  authority  ;  but 
it  would,  it  is  to  be  feared,  be  too  much  to  say 
that,  in  case  of  its  not  being  done  in  this  way,  he 
would  have  preferred  that  it  should  not  be  done 
at  all.  The  saying,  often  attributed  to  him,  that 
the  nests  must  be  pulled  down  if  the  rooks  are 
to  be  got  rid  of,  cannot  be  traced  to  any  document 
emanating  from  him  ;  but  it  has  internal  verisimili- 
tude. His  aesthetic  sense  was  imperfectly  developed. 
He  probably  saw  that  the  buildings  and  their 
ornaments  were  well  adapted  for  the  worship  which 
it  was  his  business  to  abolish  ;  and,  if  buildings 
better  adapted  to  Protestant  worship  and  yet 
conforming  to  the  laws  of  good  taste  were  not 
substituted  for  these,  this  may  be  less  his  fault 


58  JOHN  KNOX 

than  that  of  the  careless  generations  of  Protestants 
that  have  succeeded  him. 

The  war  shifted  from  Perth  to  Fife,  where  the 
insurgents  gained  a  decisive  advantage  at  Cupar 
Muir  ;  and,  thereafter,  they  drove  the  Regent  and 
her  troops  out  of  Stirling  and  Edinburgh  to 
Haddington,  where  they  rallied.  Then  the  tide  of 
fortune  turned  ;  and  the  Congregation  were  severely 
beaten  at  Leith  and  driven,  in  a  sorely  shattered 
condition,  to  Stirling. 

It  was  a  strange  war  ;  for  the  combatants  were 
less  the  Scots  themselves  than  the  French  on  the 
one  side  and  the  English  on  the  other  ;  and  the 
issue  seemed  to  depend  on  the  number  of  auxiliaries 
the  one  foreign  power  or  the  other  could  be  induced 
to  furnish.  Knox  had  an  extraordinary  part  to 
play  in  it ;  because  he  was  not  only  the  army 
chaplain,  whose  voice,  as  Randolph,  the  English 
ambassador,  said,  was  able  to  put  more  life  into 
men  than  five  hundred  trumpets  continually  bluster- 
ing in  their  ears,  but  he  was,  besides,  the  secretary 
of  the  Congregation,  issuing  manifestoes  and  penning 
despatches  ;  and  he  was  negotiator  and  almost  spy, 
going  on  a  secret  mission  to  England  and  haggling 
with  the  English  Government  about  the  sums  of 
money  they  were  to  pay  to  the  various  Scottish 
nobles  for  their  services,  It  was  all  necessary,  he 


JOHN  KNOX  59 

believed,  in  the  sacred  cause,  and  with  his  whole 
heart  and  mind  he  approved  of  the  English  alliance, 
while  he  was  certainly  politically  right  in  seeking 
to  deliver  his  country  from  the  presence  of  the 
French,  who  were  intolerable  oppressors  of  the 
people  ;  but  we  are  almost  glad  that  Knox  did 
not  shine  in  such  negotiations.  He  was  perfectly 
well  known  to  the  enemy  at  Berwick,  when  he 
thought  he  was  going  about  incognito  ;  once,  when 
he  suggested  that  the  English  soldiers  who  lent 
their  swords  to  Scotland  should  make  an  equivocal 
explanation  of  their  conduct,  he  was  sharply  rebuked 
by  the  English  agent  with  whom  he  was  dealing  ; 
and  once,  when  he  had  secured  a  large  sum  of 
money  from  the  English  Government,  it  was  sur- 
prised and  seized  by  the  enemy  on  its  way  North. 
He  was  himself  weary  of  this  business  before  he 
had  had  it  long  in  charge  ;  and  it  was  well  when 
it  was  taken  out  of  his  hands  by  young  Lethington. 
But  he  endured  incredible  labours  and  sufferings 
in  those  eventful  months.  Often  he  was  sick  in 
body  and  sicker  still  in  spirit  Yet  he  was  the  life 
and  soul  of  the  whole  movement ;  and  in  moments 
of  despair,  which  happened  not  rarely,  he  was  able 
to  pour  energy  into  the  veins  of  his  comrades  and 
inspire  them  with  fresh  faith  in  God  and  in  their 
enterprise. 


60  JOHN  KNOX 

What  might  have  been  the  issue  of  the  struggle, 
had  it  been  prolonged,  it  is  impossible  to  say  ; 
but,  while  it  still  hung  in  the  balance,  Mary  of 
Lorraine  died  on  10  June  1660  ;  and,  immediately 
thereafter,  by  the  Treaty  of  Edinburgh,  it  was 
settled  that  Francis  and  Mary  should  give  up  using 
the  arms  of  England  ;  that  the  French  troops  should 
depart  from  Scotland  and  no  office  of  importance 
be  held  any  more  by  a  Frenchman  ;  and  that  a 
parliament  should  be  forthwith  assembled,  the  acts 
of  which  should  be  as  valid  as  if  it  had  been 
summoned  by  the  King  and  Queen.  Thus  the 
Congregation  triumphed  all  along  the  line  ;  and 
the  way  was  clear  for  realising  all  the  hopes  with 
which  Knox  had  returned  to  his  native  country. 

On  i  August  1560  began  the  sittings  of  the 
most  important  parliament  that  ever  met  in  Scot- 
land. It  was  numerously  attended  ;  the  presence 
of  many  of  the  barons  or  lairds  being  especially 
noteworthy — an  estate  of  the  realm  which  had  long 
had  the  right  of  sitting  in  parliament  but  had  made 
little  or  no  use  of  the  privilege  till  now,  when 
it  was  stirred  with  religious  impulses  and  perceived 
how  political  power  might  be  wielded  as  a  weapon 
in  the  war  of  righteousness.  "  I  never,"  reported 
Randolph,  the  English  ambassador,  to  his  master, 


JOHN  KNOX  6 1 

"  heard  matters  of  so  great  import  neither  sooner 
dispatched  nor  with  better  will  agreed  to."  Religion 
had  the  first  place  ;  and  a  committee  of  ministers, 
of  whom  Knox  was  one,  were  called  on  to  draw 
up  a  confession  of  faith,  as  a  basis  for  all  that 
was  to  follow.  In  four  days  the  First  Scottish 
Confession  was  put  together  ;  and  it  was  adopted 
by  parliament  article  by  article  ;  the  opposite  party 
having  nothing  to  say  for  themselves  beyond  a  feeble 
dissent  from  a  very  few.  It  was  resolved  that 
the  spiritual  estate,  on  account  of  false  doctrine 
and  dishonoured  sacraments,  should  be  henceforth 
excluded  from  voting  in  parliament.  All  doctrines 
and  practices  contrary  to  the  new  creed  were 
condemned.  The  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope  within 
the  realm  was  abolished.  Finally,  the  celebration 
of  the  Mass  was  forbidden  under  penalty  of 
confiscation  for  the  first  offence,  banishment  for 
the  second,  and  death  for  the  third. 

Thus,  at  one  swoop,  was  the  structure,  which 
it  had  taken  hundreds  of  years  to  rear,  brought 
to  the  ground ;  and,  although  to  the  end  of 
his  life  Knox  was  kept  in  constant  anxiety  as 
to  the  possible  raising  up  again  of  what  he  would 
have  called  the  spiritual  Babylon,  the  work  was 
never  undone.  This  was  the  end  of  the  papacy 
in  Scotland  ;  and  with  it  an  era  of  darkness, 


62  JOHN  KNOX 

superstition  and  spiritual  tyranny  passed  away. 
Whatever  might  be  the  shape  which  the  New 
Scotland  might  assume,  at  all  events  the  misshapen 
fabric  of  Papal  Scotland  had  perished  of  its  own 
corruption  and  gone  down,  unhonoured  and  unwept, 
into  the  abyss  of  oblivion.  Never  was  there  a 
system  which  was  more  utterly  unable  to  offer 
for  itself  any  rational  defence.  When  the  bishops, 
who  were  present  in  parliament,  held  their  peace, 
the  Earl  Marischal  uttered  a  word  worthy  of  repeti- 
tion. "  It  is  long,"  remarked  he,  "  since  I  have 
had  some  favour  unto  the  truth  and  since  that 
I  have  had  a  suspicion  of  the  papistical  religion  ; 
but,  I  praise  my  God,  this  day  has  fully  resolved 
me  in  the  one  and  the  other.  For,  seeing  that 
my  Lord  Bishops,  who  for  their  learning  can,  and 
for  the  zeal  that  they  bear  to  the  verity  would, 
as  I  suppose,  gainsay  anything  that  directly  repugns 
to  the  verity  of  God  ;  seeing,  I  say,  that  the  Lord 
Bishops  here  present  speak  nothing  to  the  contrary 
of  the  doctrine  proponed,  I  cannot  but  hold  it  to 
be  the  very  truth  of  God,  and  the  contrary  to  be 
deceivable  doctrine.  And,  therefore,  as  far  as  in 
me  lieth,  I  approve  the  one  and  damn  the  other. 
And  yet  more,  I  must  vote,  by  way  of  protestation, 
that,  if  any  persons  ecclesiastical  shall  after  this 
oppose  themselves  to  this  our  Confession,  they 


JOHN  KNOX  63 

have  no  place  nor  credit,  considering  that  they, 
having  had  long  advisement  and  full  knowledge 
of  this  our  Confession,  none  is  now  found,  in  lawful, 
free  and  quiet  assembly,  to  oppose  themselves  to 
that  which  we  profess."  l 

But  much  still  required  to  be  done  to  provide 
a  substitute  for  the  system  which  had  been  abolished 
and  to  supply  to  Scotland  what  Knox  was  fond 
of  calling  "  the  face  of  a  Church."  Ministers  of 
the  right  stamp  were  scarce  ;  and  much  care  had 
to  be  taken  in  distributing  them  to  the  best 
advantage  over  the  country.  Knox  was  appointed 
to  Edinburgh,  or  rather  reappointed  ;  for  he  had 
been  appointed  the  year  before  amidst  the  troubles 
of  the  civil  war,  and  it  was  still  felt  that  he  was  the 
man  for  this  centre.  Adam  Heriot  was  sent  to 
Aberdeen,  William  Christison  to  Dundee,  John 
Row  to  Perth,  Christopher  Goodman  to  St.  Andrews  ; 
and  so  on.  Five  ministers  of  distinguished  ability 
were  appointed  Superintendents,  to  be  over  extensive 
districts,  in  which  they  were  "  to  plant  and  erect 
churches,  to  set  order  and  appoint  ministers ; "  and 
these  were  John  Spottiswood  for  Lothian,  John 
Wynram  for  Fife,  John  Willock  for  Glasgow, 
Erskine  of  Dun  for  Angus  and  Mearns,  John 
Carswell  for  Argyll  and  the  Isles.  For  the  support 
1  History,  ii.  122. 


64  JOHN  KNOX 

of  these  and  their  successors  provision  had  to  be 
made  ;  but,  for  this  and  for  the  preparation  of  a 
comprehensive  scheme  for  the  government  of  the 
new  Church,  there  was  not  time  in  the  Parliament 
of  1 560  ;  and  so  to  the  same  committee  which  had 
drawn  up  the  Confession  of  Faith  it  was  remitted 
to  draw  up  a  Book  of  Discipline,  embodying  all 
these  things  in  preparation  for  a  Parliament  to  be 
held  the  following  year.  Accordingly,  at  this  task 
Knox  and  his  comrades  laboured  with  assiduity 
and  soon  had  their  report  ready.  But  it  met  with 
unexpected  opposition  and  was  refused  the  sanction 
of  Parliament,  its  outline  being  too  ambitious  for 
that  generation,  whose  leaders  characterized  its 
proposals  as  "  devout  imaginations."  Its  purpose 
was  to  employ  the  property  of  the  old  Church  for 
the  support  of  the  new,  and  for  the  equipment 
of  a  national  scheme  of  education  and  poor  relief; 
but  this  was  wrecked  upon  the  compensation  which 
it  was  supposed  necessary  to  give  to  the  actual 
holders  of  the  property,  many  of  whom  were 
members  of  the  nobility  or  related  to  the  noble 
families  of  the  land,  on  which  their  support  would 
have  fallen,  had  they  been  dispossessed. 

But  there  was  a  motive  behind  of  a  still  more  serious 
kind.  The  example  set  in  England  of  the  spolia- 
tion of  the  monasteries  had  not  been  lost  on  Scotland  ; 


JOHN  KNOX  65 

and  there  was  a  keen  thirst,  especially  in  the  upper 
classes,  for  the  property,  which  was  acknowledged 
to  be  in  excess  of  the  needs  of  the  preachers.  The 
longer  a  settlement  was  delayed,  the  easier  would 
it  be  for  the  landed  proprietors  to  absorb  into 
their  own  estates  the  possessions  of  the  Church, 
as  the  incumbents,  one  by  one,  slipped  away.  By 
the  avarice  of  the  Scottish  nobility  the  patriotic 
plans  of  Knox  were  to  a  large  extent  frustrated  ; 
and  by  the  struggle  with  these  landgrabbers,  many 
of  whom  were  professors  of  the  Reformed  religion, 
the  rest  of  his  life  was  embittered.  The  preachers 
were  starved,  some  of  them,  it  is  alleged,  actually 
dying  of  cold  and  hunger  ;  young  men  were  dis- 
couraged from  entering  the  ministry  ;  and  the 
whole  fabric  of  the  new  Church  was  stunted.  It 
was  well  that  an  ecclesiastical  body  was  called  into 
existence  as  a  counterpoise  to  Parliament,  the  first 
General  Assembly  being  held  in  December  1560,  and 
consisting  of  six  ministers  and  forty-two  elders. 
Many  attempts  were  made  to  wreck  this  institution 
in  its  early  years,  one  of  these  evoking  from  Knox 
the  famous  saying  :  "  Take  from  us  the  freedom 
of  Assemblies  and  take  from  us  the  Evangel "  ;  but 
the  General  Assembly  was  destined  to  outlive  the 
Scottish  Parliament  itself  and  nearly  every  other 
national  institution  then  in  existence. 

5 


66  JOHN  KNOX 

Whilst,  however,  these  sweeping  changes  were 
taking  place,  there  was  one  power  with  which  the 
revolutionists  were  not  sufficiently  reckoning.  This 
was  the  sovereign  of  the  country.  Mary  Stuart, 
the  only  child  of  James  V.  and  Mary  of  Guise, 
was  born  in  sorrow,  as  her  father  was  dropping 
into  his  grave  a  broken-hearted  man.  But  she  grew 
up  gay  and  beautiful,  with  all  the  cleverness  of 
the  Stuart  race  in  her  brain  and  all  its  waywardness 
and  passion  in  her  blood.  Scarcely  had  she  come 
into  the  world  when  there  was  talk  of  marrying  her  ; 
and  about  this  there  was  far  too  much  talk,  for 
her  comfort,  all  her  days.  First,  she  was  to  be 
the  bride  of  the  son  of  the  King  of  England  ;  and 
self-willed  Harry  the  Eighth  ravaged  Scotland  with 
fire  and  sword  because  this  agreement  was  departed 
from,  destroying,  as  he  did  so,  not  a  few  of  those 
beautiful  houses  of  religion  on  the  Borders,  the 
destruction  of  which  is  often  credited  to  John  Knox. 
Mary  of  Guise  brought  it  about  that  her  child  was 
espoused  to  the  Dauphin  of  her  own  native  land  ; 
and  in  1548,  at  the  age  of  six,  the  little  maid  was 
accordingly  carried  to  France,  to  be  educated  for 
her  great  destiny  under  the  eye  of  her  future 
mother-in-law,  the  renowned  Catherine  de'  Medici. 
It  was  an  evil  school  ;  for  the  French  court  was 
unspeakably  corrupt.  "  She  was  sold,"  says  Knox. 


JOHN  KNOX  67 

"  to  go  to  France,  to  the  end  that  in  her  youth 
she  should  drink  of  that  liquor  that  should  remain 
with  her  all  her  lifetime,  for  a  plague  to  this  realm 
and  for  her  final  destruction."1  In  1558  she  was 
married,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  to  a  husband  six 
weeks  her  junior,  and  she  signed  a  secret  deed, 
making  over  her  country  and  crown,  in  the  event  of 
her  death,  to  France,  this  compact  to  hold  good 
notwithstanding  any  declaration  to  the  contrary 
she  might  make  in  public,  a  fact  which  proves  how 
exactly  she  had  been  taught  in  the  same  school  of 
political  morality  as  her  mother,  who  declared  at  a 
critical  moment  in  her  own  life  that  princes  ought 
not  to  be  bound  by  their  promises  any  longer  than 
was  compatible  with  their  own  convenience.  The 
Dauphin,  Mary's  husband,  succeeded  to  the  French 
throne  the  year  after  their  marriage  ;  he  was,  how- 
ever, but  a  sickly  boy  entirely  under  the  thumb  of 
his  ambitious  mother  ;  and  he  died  the  following 
year,  in  November  1560.  Thus  was  taken  away 
one  large  portion  of  the  glory  apparently  destined 
for  Mary,  who  at  one  time  seemed  likely  to  be  Queen 
at  once  of  France,  England  and  Scotland.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  her  mother  had  died  the  same  year  ; 
and  now,  after  the  double  bereavement,  the  time 
seemed  ripe  for  her  to  return  to  her  native  country. 
1  History,  i.  218. 


68  JOHN  KNOX 

On  19  August,  1561  .accompanied  by  her  four 
Maries  and  a  brilliant  retinue,  she  landed  at  Leith  ; 
but  it  was  one  of  those  dismal  days  of  rain,  mist 
and  darkness  for  which  the  Scottish  climate  is 
unrivalled  ;  and  prophets  after  the  event  said  that 
it  was  a  presage  of  all  the  misery  which  was 
coming  to  the  country  and  to  her.  The  climate, 
political  and  religious,  into  which  she  had  come, 
was  scarcely  less  dismal  for  one  born  and  bred 
as  she  had  been  ;  and,  without  treachery  to  the 
cause  of  Knox,  it  is  surely  possible  to  extend 
to  the  illfated  princess  a  tribute  of  sympathy. 
Hardly  had  she  set  foot  on  the  soil  of  her  country 
when  she  became  involved  in  the  religious  quarrel  ; 
for,  the  Sunday  after  her  arrival,  Mass  was  said 
in  the  chapel  of  Holyrood.  This  acted  on  the 
community  like  a  spark  on  gunpowder,  and  the 
flames  of  religious  excitement  enveloped  the  land. 
Some  stuck  by  the  fact  that  she  had  broken  the  law 
and  incurred  its  penalty.  Others  said  that  she 
could  not  avoid  what  had  been  done,  having  so 
many  French  visitors  at  the  palace.  A  rumour 
spread  that,  if  she  were  interfered  with,  she  would 
take  ship  and  sail  back  to  the  place  whence  she 
had  come.  Sanguine  Protestants  said  that,  if 
she  were  treated  with  generosity,  she  might  be  won 
to  their  side.  Knox,  from  his  pulpit  in  St.  Giles', 


JOHN  KNOX  69 

declared  that  one  Mass  inspired  him  with  more 
terror  than  would  the  landing  in  the  country  of 
ten  thousand  men. 

Hearing  of  this  sermon,  Mary  sent  for  the 
preacher  to  the  palace,  and  interviewed  him  in  the 
presence  of  the  future  Regent  Moray.  She  re- 
proached him  with  his  book  on  female  government  ; 
but  he  skilfully  parried  this  attack  by  declaring  that 
it  had  always  been  the  privilege  of  the  learned  to 
emit  theories  of  government  differing  widely  from 
the  customs  of  their  own  day,  as  Plato  had  done  in 
his  Republic  \  but  yet  they  had  lived  quietly  under 
the  constitutions  of  their  time  and  country.  She 
then  drew  out  of  him  his  political  views,  the  upshot 
of  which  appeared,  she  said,  to  be  that  her  subjects 
were  to  obey  him  instead  of  her.  But  out  of  this 
conclusion  also  he  extricated  himself  by  the  observa- 
tion that  the  whole  end  of  his  preaching  was  to 
lead  subjects  and  princes  both  to  obey  God.  From 
this  she  drifted  into  the  true  papist's  question,  how 
she  was  to  know  whether  he  or  the  teachers  of  her 
youth  had  the  divine  authority ;  to  which  his  reply 
was  that  she  was  to  trust  neither  the  one  nor  the 
other,  but  God  speaking  in  his  Word.  He  left  her 
with  the  benediction  :  "  I  pray  God,  Madam,  that 
you  may  be  as  blessed  within  the  commonwealth  of 
Scotland,  if  it  be  the  pleasure  of  God,  as  ever 


70  JOHN  KNOX 

Deborah  was  in  the  commonwealth  of  Israel." 
What  she  thought  of  her  visitor  we  have  not  been 
informed  ;  but  his  opinion  of  her  was,  "If  there  be 
not  in  her  a  proud  mind,  a  crafty  wit,  and  an  in- 
durate heart  against  God  and  His  truth,  my  judg- 
ment faileth  me." 

It  is  difficult  to  know  what  attraction  there  was 
in  Knox  which  made  Mary  wish  to  see  him  any 
more  ;  but  she  did  send  for  him  again  and  again  ; 
and  it  is  evident  from  his  accounts  of  these  inter- 
views that  the  attraction  was  not  all  on  one  side. 
Mary  appears  to  have  hoped  to  subdue  this  son  of 
thunder.  He,  perhaps,  did  not  hope  enough  to  sub- 
due her  ;  for  he  seems  early  to  have  spoken  strongly 
of  the  hopelessness  of  her  conversion.  But  he 
enjoyed  the  encounter  of  wits  with  so  keen  a  mind. 
It  was  not  an  entirely  unequal  contest ;  for,  while 
he  had  the  advantage  of  age  and  experience,  she 
had  the  advantage  of  being  a  woman  and  a 
queen. 

The  second  occasion  of  his  being  summoned  to 
the  monarch's  presence  was  a  sermon  he  had  preached 
against  an  outbreak  of  persecution  in  France,  where 
the  Huguenots  had  been  attacked  by  the  Guises,  in 
celebration  of  which  the  Queen  was  supposed  to 
have  held  a  ball  at  Holyrood.  This  time  the 
preacher  was  in  a  humorous  mood,  and  hinted  to 


JOHN  KNOX  71 

Mary  that  the  ordinary  fate  of  people  who  do  not 
go  to  Church  had  befallen  her,  in  that  she  had 
heard  ill  of  herself,  and  did  not  know  whether  or 
not  it  was  true.  If  she  would  come  to  the  sermon, 
she  would  not  be  misinformed  as  she  had  been. 
Or,  if  she  appointed  time  and  place,  he  would  come 
and  preach  his  sermon  over  again  to  her.  So  he 
departed  "  with  a  reasonable  merry  countenance ; 
whereat  some  papists  offended,  said :  '  He  is  not 
afraid.'  Which  heard  of  him,  he  answered,  '  Why 
should  the  pleasing  face  of  a  gentlewoman  make 
me  afraid  ?  I  have  looked  in  the  faces  of  many 
angry  men,  and  yet  have  not  been  afraid  above 
measure.' " l 

It  was  Mary  who  was  in  a  pleasant  humour 
at  their  next  interview,  which  took  place  at 
Lochleven,  where  she  had  invited  him  to  attend 
her.  The  occasion  was  one  of  national  interest 
The  Queen's  example,  as  a  papist  and  hearer  01 
Mass,  was  rapidly  telling  on  the  country.  People 
of  high  degree  came  up  from  the  provinces  hot 
against  the  ceremony  which  the  law  of  the  land 
condemned,,  but  the  atmosphere  of  the  court  cooled 
them,  and  they  went  home  thinking  the  Mass  was 
not  so  dangerous  after  all.  Wherever  Mary  made 
her  progresses,  of  which  she  was  fond,  as  they  were 
1  History,  i.  335. 


72  JOHN  KNOX 

A 

very  popular,  the  Mass  went  with  her  ;  and  the 
nobility  with  whom  she  had  been  staying  were 
tempted  to  continue  it  after  she  had  left.  Knox's 
best  friends,  like  the  future  Regent  Moray,  had 
dissented  from  his  views,  maintaining  that  the  Queen 
had  the  right  to  the  exercise  of  her  own  religion  ; 
and  Calvin  had  even  been  appealed  to  against  his 
disciple.  Many,  of  whom  Lethington  was  one,  had 
gone  completely  over  to  the  Queen's  side,  and  were 
her  uncompromising  apologists.  At  length  the  priests 
of  the  old  Church  beginning  to  bestir  themselves, 
the  Mass  was  celebrated  here  and  there.  But  the 
gentlemen  of  the  West,  ever  the  most  resolute  and 
jealous  Protestants  in  the  country,  taking  the  law 
into  their  own  hands,  suppressed  the  unlawful 
practice  by  force.  Of  this  Knox  approved,  and 
Mary  summoned  him  to  answer  for  it.  They  had 
an  angry  interview  in  the  evening ;  but  next 
morning,  as  she  went  out  to  the  hawking,  she 
summoned  him  to  her  side  and  entered  into  the 
most  confidential  conversation  on  matters  con- 
cerning both  his  and  her  welfare  ;  no  allusion  being 
made  to  the  subject  of  the  preceding  evening's  dis- 
cussion, till,  at  the  moment  of  parting,  she  whispered 
that  all  should  be  done  as  he  had  desired : 
to  which  he  replied :  "  I  am  assured  then  that 
you  shall  please  God  and  enjoy  rest  and  tran- 


JOHN  KNOX  73 

quillity  within  your  realm  ;  which  to  your  Majesty 
is  more  profitable  than  all  the  Pope's  power  can 
be."1 

Very  different  was  the  next  interview,  which 
took  place  in  June  1563,  when  it  was  rumoured 
that  the  Queen  was  about  to  marry  the  son  of  the 
King  of  Spain,  of  course  a  Catholic.  On  this 
report  Knox  had  commented  in  the  pulpit  with 
such  energy  as  to  displease  his  own  friends,  and 
flatterers  were  not  slow  to  carry  his  words  to  the 
court.  On  his  arrival  there  he  found  the  Queen  in 
a  towering  passion,  which  lasted  throughout  the  entire 
interview  ;  every  attempt  of  his  to  explain  himself 
being  met  with  the  question :  "  But  what  have  you  to 
do  with  my  marriage  "  ?  "I  have  borne  with  you," 
she  exclaimed  through  her  tears,  "  in  all  your 
rigorous  manner  of  speaking;  yea,  I  have  sought 
your  favours  by  all  possible  means,  and  yet  I  cannot 
be  quit  of  you.  I  vow  to  God,  I  shall  be  revenged." 
He  pleaded  that  he  was  not  his  own  master  in  the 
pulpit,  but  had  to  utter  what  was  given  him.  But 
the  same  angry  rejoinder  burst  from  her ;  and  she 
added  the  contemptuous  question :  "  And  what  are 
you  within  this  realm  ?  "  But  it  was  now  his  turn 
to  score ;  and  he  replied  :  "  A  subject  born  within 
the  same  ;  and,  albeit  I  be  neither  earl,  lord 
1  History,  i.  376. 


74  JOHN  KNOX 

nor  baron,  yet  has  God  made  me,  how  abject  I 
ever  be  in  your  eyes,  a  profitable  member  thereof." 
Erskine  of  Dun,  who  stood  by,  attempted  to  soothe 
the  enraged  princess,  but  her  tears  and  sobs  re- 
doubled; and  Knox  was  dismissed  with  an  injunction 
to  wait  in  the  ante-chamber  till  the  royal  pleasure 
should  be  announced  to  him.  There  he  was  avoided 
by  the  courtiers,  as  if  he  had  been  a  leper;  but 
he  turned  him  to  the  ladies  of  the  court  and  said, 
not  in  the  tones  of  a  terrified  man  :  "  O  fair  ladies, 
how  pleasant  were  this  life  of  yours,  if  it  should 
ever  abide,  and  then  in  the  end  you  might  pass 
to  heaven  with  all  this  gear.  But  fye  upon  that 
knave  Death,  that  will  come  whether  we  will  or 
not."  And  so  on  he  moralised,  availing  himself  of 
the  best  company  to  be  had  in  the  circumstances, 
till  the  storm  in  the  inner  chamber  was  allayed  and 
he  was  permitted  to  depart.1 

From  this  time  onwards,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  Knox  was  in  deadly  peril  ;  and  it  was  not 
long  before  Mary  thought  she  had  caught  him 
in  a  corner  from  which  escape  was  impossible. 
In  her  absence  from  the  city,  Mass  was  said  at 
Holyrood  in  a  peculiarly  offensive  manner  during 
the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper  in  the  churches 
of  the  town ;  whereat  Knox's  party  sent  certain 
1  History,  i.  389. 


JOHN  KNOX  75 

of  their  number  to  take  note  of  the  persons  who 
attended  the  service  in  the  chapel.  Out  of  this 
sprang  some  disorder,  which  was  greatly  magnified  ; 
and  two  of  the  citizens  of  Edinburgh  were  arrested. 
When  they  were  about  to  be  brought  to  trial, 
Knox  took  it  upon  him  to  convene  a  number 
of  friends  from  different  parts  of  the  country, 
to  stand  by  the  prisoners.  His  letter  falling  into 
the  hands  of  Mary,  who  regarded  it  as  treason- 
able, Knox  was  called  to  answer  for  this  crime 
before  the  Privy  Council  in  December  1563.  His 
best  friends  counselled  him  to  make  his  submission 
to  the  Queen  beforehand,  as  they  could  perceive 
no  way  of  escape.  But  Knox  disdained  to  use 
any  artifice,  saying :  "  I  praise  my  God,  through 
Jesus  Christ,  I  have  learned  not  to  cry  conjuration 
and  treason  at  everything  that  the  godless  multitude 
does  condemn,  neither  yet  to  fear  the  things  that 
they  fear."  The  Queen  came  in  and  occupied 
the  chair  with  no  little  worldly  pomp  ;  "  But,"  adds 
Knox,  "  her  pomp  lacked  one  principal  point,  to 
wit,  womanly  gravity ;  for,  when  she  saw  John 
Knox  standing  at  the  other  end  of  the  table,  bare- 
headed, she  first  smiled,  and  then  burst  into  laugh- 
ter, saying  :  "  Know  ye  whereat  I  laugh  ?  Yon 
man  made  me  weep,1  and  wept  never  a  tear  himself. 
1  "  gart  me  greit." 


76  JOHN  KNOX 

I  will  see  whether  I  can  make  him  cry."  The 
Queen  entered  into  the  argument,  and  Secretary 
Lethington  did  his  very  best  to  fasten  the  halter 
round  the  neck  of  the  culprit.  But  never  was  Knox 
more  cool  and  astute.  They  were  assuming  that 
to  convene  the  Queen's  lieges  without  her  permission 
was  manifestly  a  crime  ;  but  Knox  boldly  denied 
it,  arguing  that  he  did  so  every  Sabbath,  when 
he  invited  people  to  Church  ;  he  proved  that  he  had 
commission  from  the  General  Assembly  to  call 
the  friends  of  the  Church  together  whenever  public 
necessity  required  it  ;  and  there  were  those  in 
the  Council  who  had  answered  such  summonses 
from  his  pen  in  days  gone  by.  A  stupor  of 
admiration  seized  the  Council,  like  that  which  fell 
on  the  tribunal  of  the  beasts  when  Reineke  Fuchs 
made  his  defence,  and  they  unanimously  acquitted 
the  prisoner.  So  incensed  was  Lethington  that 
he  recalled  the  Queen,  who  had  left  the  chamber, 
and  caused  the  vote  to  be  taken  over  again  in 
her  presence.  But  Scottish  nobles  were  not  to 
be  thus  intimidated  ;  and  they  gave  the  same  votes 
over  again  with  the  emphasis  of  indignation.1  There 
is  not  in  history  a  scene  more  creditable  to  the 
Scottish  nobility ;  but  it  robbed  John  Knox  of 
the  martyr's  crown. 

1  History,  1.412, 


JOHN  KNOX  77 

Still  he  might  well  have  felt  like  David,  when 
he  said  :  "  I  shall  one  day  fall  into  the  hands  of 
Saul."  Mary's  blandishments  were  slowly  under- 
mining the  virtue  of  the  Protestant  nobility  ;  behind 
whom  there  was  a  considerable  body  of  nobles  still 
Catholic  ;  and,  by  serious  riots  in  Edinburgh,  it 
was  made  manifest  that  the  common  man  resented 
the  yoke  of  discipline  imposed  by  the  new  system. 
Mary  and  Knox  stood  out  more  and  more  clearly 
as  rival  champions  ;  and  an  indifferent  spectator 
of  the  struggle  might  have  predicted  with  consider- 
able confidence  that  the  beautiful  Queen  would  win 
in  the  long  run.  But  by  a  sudden  and  over- 
mastering impulse  Mary  flung  her  chances  away, 
and  the  game  was  left  in  the  hands  of  her  grim 
antagonist. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  annals  of  romance  more 
dramatic  than  the  history  of  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots, 
from  her  marriage  to  Darnley  till  her  flight  into 
England,  from  which  she  was  never  to  return. 
The  dates  are  eloquent,  and  ought  to  be  carefully 
noted  ;  because  they  reveal  the  headlong  haste 
with  which  the  various  stages  of  this  veritable 
Prodigal's  Progress  were  evolved. 

After  innumerable  schemes  for  her  second  marriage 
had  been  discussed,  Mary  made  a  choice  of  her  own, 
wedding  her  cousin,  Henry  Darnley,  on  29  July 


78  JOHN  KNOX 

1565,  she  being  then  twenty-three  and  he  nineteen 
years  of  age.  This  step  cost  her  the  loss  of  her 
best  counsellors,  such  as  the  future  Regent  Moray 
and  Maitland  of  Lethington,  and  made  Queen 
Elizabeth  and  the  statesmen  of  England  her  enemies. 
But  her  cousin  had  a  handsome  person  and  a  fair 
face,  and  without  regard  for  consequences  she  obeyed 
the  impulse  of  her  heart.  Love,  however,  which 
swelled  like  the  Solway,  ebbed  like  its  tide.  Darnley 
was  a  fool,  and  she  was  soon  disgusted  with  him, 
making  no  more  secret  of  her  dislike  than  she  had 
previously  done  of  her  favour.  On  Rizzio,  an 
Italian,  who  had  come  to  Scotland  in  the  train  of 
the  ambassador  of  Savoy  and  stayed  as  a  secret 
agent  of  the  Pope,  she  allowed  her  affections  to 
decline,  and  she  loaded  him  with  promotions,  which 
rendered  him  so  obnoxious  to  the  Scottish  nobility 
that  several  of  its  members,  in  conjunction  with 
the  jealous  Darnley,  stabbed  him  to  death  in  the 
Queen's  ante-chamber  on  9  March,  1566.  Such  an 
act  was  not  likely  to  bring  back  to  her  husband 
Mary's  wandering  affections  :  and  now  she  fell  under 
the  spell  of  another  and  still  more  dangerous 
lover,  James  Hepburn,  Earl  of  Bothwell,  whom 
Throgmorton,  a  keen  observer,  had,  years  before, 
described  to  Queen  Elizabeth  as  "  a  glorious,  rash 
and  hazardous  young  man."  At  the  baptism  of 


JOHN  KNOX  79 

her  son,  the  future  James  VI.,  in  the  June  of  this 
year,  Bothwell  was  allowed  to  take  a  prominent 
part,  while  Darnley,  the  father  of  the  child,  was 
banished  from  the  ceremony.  In  October  Mary 
paid  Bothwell  a  romantic  visit  at  Hermitage  Castle 
on  the  Border,  riding  so  far  and  so  fast  for  the 
purpose  as  to  bring  on  a  dangerous  illness.  On 
9  February  of  the  following  year  Darnley  was 
foully  murdered  by  an  explosion  of  gunpowder  at 
Kirk-o'-Field,  a  spot  on  which  the  University  of 
Edinburgh  now  stands  but  then  outside  the  city  ; 
and  Bothwell  was  universally  believed  to  be  the 
leader  of  the  conspirators,  although  he  was  acquitted 
at  a  mock  trial.  Three  months  afterwards,  on 
15  May  1567,  Mary  married  him,  after  creating 
him  Duke  of  Orkney  ;  he  having  in  the  beginning 
of  the  month,  through  the  shameful  connivance 
of  the  head  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
obtained  a  divorce  from  his  wife.  Mary  was 
ready  to  launch  forth  on  a  new  career,  youth 
at  the  prow  and  pleasure  at  the  helm  ;  but  she 
had  miscalculated  the  temper  of  a  Protestant 
population.  By  a  common  impulse  the  country 
rose  up  in  an  access  of  disgust  and  horror.  The 
troops  which  she  summoned  to  her  assistance 
melted  away  on  Carberry  Hill.  She  was  separated 
forever  from  her  paramour  and  brought  a  prisoner 


8o  JOHN  KNOX 

to  the  capital,  amidst  the  most  humiliating  out- 
breaks of  popular  execration.  She  had  to  sign  her 
own  demission  of  the  crown  ;  her  infant  son  was 
crowned  king  ;  Moray  was  appointed  regent  of 
the  kingdom  ;  and  she  was  imprisoned  in  Lochleven 
Castle.  Thence  she  managed  to  make  her  escape 
in  May  1 568 ;  but,  although  three-fourths  of  the 
nobility  flocked  to  her  standard,  she  was  so  de- 
cisively beaten  in  a  single  battle  at  Langside  that 
she  had  to  flee  to  England,  where,  for  nearly  twenty 
years,  she  remained  in  confinement,  till  in  1587,  in 
Fotheringay  Castle,  she  laid  her  head  on  the 
block  and  terminated  her  tragic  career. 

During  all  these  proceedings  Knox  took  the  worst 
possible  view  of  Mary,  not  scrupling  to  apply  to 
her  terms  unfit  for  ears  polite ;  and  in  his  opinion 
a  grave  iniquity  was  committed  when  she  was 
not  tried  and  executed  for  murder  and  adultery, 
instead  of  being  imprisoned  in  Lochleven  Castle  ; 
for,  in  his  eyes,  birth  or  rank  was  no  excuse  for 
crime.  But,  as  by  the  death  of  Mary  of  Lorraine 
his  cause  was  saved  from  impending  danger,  so  by 
the  frailties  of  Mary  Stuart  it  secured  its  second 
great  deliverance  and  victory,  at  a  juncture  when  it 
appeared  to  be  in  imminent  peril.  Knox  preached 
at  the  coronation  of  the  infant  King  at  Stirling  and 
again  at  the  opening  of  Parliament  at  the  close 


JOHN  KNOX  8 1 

of  the  year.  The  Regent  Moray,  from  whom  he 
had  long  been  alienated  on  account  of  their 
differing  views  as  to  the  extent  to  which  the  Queen 
should  be  tolerated  in  the  exercise  of  her  own 
religion,  was  now  his  intimate  friend  again  ;  and 
they  laboured  with  one  mind  and  heart  for  the 
best  interests  of  the  kingdom.  As  early  as  December 
1567,  the  General  Assembly  could  write  to  John 
Willock,  whom  it  was  recalling  from  England, 
that  he  might  help  in  forwarding  the  good  work  in 
Scotland  :  "  Our  enemies,  praised  be  God,  are 
dashed  ;  religion  established  ;  sufficient  provision 
made  for  ministers ;  orders  taken,  and  penalty 
appointed  for  all  sort  of  transgressions  and 
transgressors ;  and,  above  all,  a  godly  magistrate, 
whom  God,  of  His  eternal  and  heavenly  providence, 
hath  reserved  to  this  age,  to  put  in  execution 
whatever  He  by  His  law  commandeth." 


CHAPTER     IV. 

CLOSING   YEARS 

ON  the  accession  of  Moray  to  the  regentship, 
Knox  was  sent  by  the  Assembly  to  visit 
the  congregations  between  Stirling  and  Berwick  to 
foster  in  the  population  a  spirit  favourable  to  the 
new  government.  And  this  was  not  the  first 
occasion  on  which  he  had  been  absent  for  a  con- 
siderable time  from  his  own  pulpit,  impressing  his 
personality  on  the  country  at  large.  More  than 
once  during  Mary's  reign  he  had  been  silenced  in 
Edinburgh  or  banished  from  the  city ;  and  these 
opportunities  were  utilised  for  far-extended  visitations 
in  different  parts  of  the  country.  Once  he  even 
went  into  England  ;  but  this  was  for  the  purpose  of 
seeing  his  two  sons,  who  were  being  brought  up  by 
the  relatives  of  their  mother.  But  the  Church  of  St. 
Giles  was  still  his  watchtower,  from  which  he  took  a 
keen  and  wide  survey  of  the  political  and  religious 
horizon  ;  and  the  numbers  of  his  devoted  disciples 
grew  ever  greater  in  the  capital.  They  looked 
82 


JOHN  KNOX  83 

carefully  after  his  temporal  interests  and,  when 
the  court  endeavoured  to  silence  or  banish  him,  they 
made  vigorous  protest.  Even  from  distant  parts  of 
Scotland,  when  his  life  was  in  peril,  warnings  came 
to  the  authorities  from  bodies  of  men,  who  made  it 
manifest  that  they  were  not  to  be  trifled  with. 

The  Good  Regent,  however,  as  Moray  came  to 
be  called,  had  many  enemies,  and  he  was  well  aware 
that  he  was  carrying  his  life  in  his  hand.  At  length 
he  was  assassinated  at  Linlithgow  on  23  January 
I57O.1  This  was  the  most  shattering  trial  of  Knox's 
life ;  and,  although  at  the  funeral  he  preached 
so  as  to  move  three  thousand  persons  to  shed  tears 
for  the  loss  of  such  a  good  and  godly  governor, 
he  felt  that  his  share  in  the  affairs  of  this  world 
was  drawing  to  an  end  ;  and,  before  the  close  of 
the  year,  he  experienced  a  shock  of  apoplexy. 

Queen  Mary  still  had  a  strong  party  in  the 
country,  who  desired  her  return  to  the  throne  ; 
and  of  course  the  removal  of  the  Good  Regent 
encouraged  their  designs.  Among  them  the  most 
prominent  were  Maitland  of  Lethington  and  Kirk- 
caldy  of  Grange — the  one  the  ablest  lawyer  and 
the  other  the  strongest  soldier  of  the  age.  Both 
had  at  one  time  been  disciples  of  Knox  ;  but  now 
the  old  man  looked  on  them  as  backsliders  and 

1  SIR  THOMAS  GRAINGER-STEWART  :   The  Good  Regent. 


84  JOHN  KNOX 

denounced  them  in  very  plain  terms  from  the  pulpit 
Both,  at  different  times,  took  the  constitutional 
course  of  complaining  of  these  attacks  to  the  Kirk 
Session  ;  Kirkcaldy's  letter  of  complaint  being  one 
of  great  spirit  and  earnestness.1  But  they  were  not 
likely  to  gain  more  by  this  means  than  did  the 
French  Ambassador,  who,  on  one  occasion,  having 
complained  to  the  Town  Council  of  the  freedom 
with  which  Knox  had,  in  the  pulpit,  handled  the 
name  of  his  royal  master,  was  informed  by  that 
body  that,  so  far  from  being  able  to  assist  him, 
they  were  not  always  able  to  prevent  John  Knox 
from  denouncing  themselves  !  Kirkcaldy,  however, 
held  Edinburgh  Castle  ;  and  he  managed  to  make 
the  city  so  hot  for  Knox,  through  whose  window 
a  shot  was  fired  one  night,  the  ball  lodging  in 
the  part  of  the  wall  in  front  of  which  he  usually 
sat,  that  the  friends  of  the  preacher  persuaded 
him,  though  with  great  difficulty,  to  remove  for 
a  time  to  St.  Andrews. 

Kirkcaldy's  attacks  were,  however,  coarse  in  com- 
parison with  the  skilful  thrusts  of  Lethington,  which, 
for  many  years,  were  a  source  of  constant  irritation 
and  pain  to  theReformer  ;  who,  however,  in  dealing 
with  them,  revealed  the  gladiatorial  skill  of  which 
he  was  capable,  even  in  old  age.  Thus,  in  March  1571, 
1  Works,  vi.  577. 


JOHN  KNOX  85 

in  answer  to  an  anonymous  libel,  with  which  it 
is  too  probable  Lethington  was  connected,  Knox 
replies  :  "  I  am  not  a  man  of  the  law,  to  have  my 
tongue  to  sell  for  silver  or  favour  of  the  world." 
"  Railing  and  sedition,"  he  remarks,  "  they  are  never 
able  to  prove  in  me,  till  that  first  they  compel  Isaiah, 
Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,  St.  Paul,  and  others  to  recant ; 
of  whom  I  have  learned  plainly  and  boldly  to  call 
wickedness  by  its  own  name,  a  fig  a  fig,  and  a 
spade  a  spade."  And  he  winds  up  with  this 
memorable  outburst :  "  What  I  have  been  to  my 
country,  albeit  this  unthankful  age  will  not  know, 
yet  the  ages  to  come  will  be  compelled  to  bear 
witness  to  the  truth.  And  thus  I  cease,  requiring 
of  all  men  who  have  anything  to  object  against  me 
that  they  will  do  it  as  plainly  as  that  I  make 
myself  and  all  my  doings  manifest  to  the  world  ; 
for  to  me  it  seems  a  thing  most  unreasonable  that, 
in  this  my  decrepit  age,  I  should  be  compelled  to 
fight  against  shadows  and  howlats1  that  dare  not 
abide  the  light."  2 

Maitland  probably  treated  with  contempt  the 
solemn  warnings  hurled  by  the  Reformer  against 
himself  and  Kirkcaldy.  But  less  than  a  year  had 
elapsed  after  the  last  of  these  utterances  before 
the  earthly  career  of  both  had  been  ignominiously 
i  owls.  •  Works,  vi.  596. 


86  JOHN  KNOX 

ended  ;  Lethington  dying  in  prison,  not  without 
leaving  behind  the  suspicion  that  he  had  released 
himself  "  the  Roman  way  "  from  the  complications 
in  which  he  had  become  hopelessly  entangled  ;  and 
Kirkcaldy  perishing  on  the  scaffold,  after  confessing 
that  it  would  have  been  good  for  him  if  he  had 
followed  the  counsel  of  John  Knox,  whose  prophecies 
had  been  fulfilled. 

Knox  was  an  old  man  when  he  was  driven  from 
Edinburgh  to  sojourn  in  St.  Andrews  ;  and  of  his 
venerable  appearance  at  this  time  we  have  received 
from  James  Melville,  then  a  student  there,  a 
description  which  is  one  of  the  gems  of  biography : — 
"Of  all  the  benefits  that  I  had  that  year  (1571) 
was  the  coming  of  that  most  notable  Prophet  and 
Apostle  of  our  nation,  Master  John  Knox,  to  St. 
Andrews.  I  heard  him  teach  the  Prophecy  of 
Daniel.  I  had  my  pen  and  my  little  book,  and 
took  away  such  things  as  I  could  comprehend. 
In  the  opening  up  of  his  text  he  was  moderate 
the  space  of  half-an-hour.  But,  when  he  entered 
to  application,  he  made  me  so  to  grue  and  tremble 
that  I  could  not  hold  the  pen  to  write.  He  would 
sometimes  come  in  and  repose  himself  in  our  College 
Yard.  He  would  call  us  scholars  unto  him  and 
bless  us,  and  exhort  us  to  know  God  and  His 
work  in  our  country,  and  to  stand  by  the  good 


JOHN  KNOX  87 

cause.      I    saw    him    every  day  of   his  doctrine  go 
hulie  and    fear,  with  a  furring  of  martricks  about 
his  neck,  a  staff  in  the  one  hand,  and  good,  godly 
Richard    Bannatyne,    his    servant,    holding    up    the 
other  oxter  from  the  Abbey  to  the  Parish  Church. 
Then,   by  the  same    Richard   and  another  servant, 
he   was  lifted   up  to  the  pulpit,  where  he  behoved 
to  lean  at  his  first  entrance  ;  but,  ere  he  had  done 
with  his  sermon,  he  was  so  active  and  vigorous  that 
he  was   like   to  ding   the  pulpit  in  blads1  and  fly 
out   of  it."     To   all   the  inhabitants  of  the  ancient 
seat  of  learning,  however,  the  presence  of  Knox  was 
not  so  acceptable  ;  he  became  involved  there  in  more 
than   one   of  those  disputes  with  which  small  uni- 
versity   towns    are    incessantly    agitated  ;    and    his 
experience    made    him    leave   to   the  Church,  as   a 
solemn  legacy,  the  advice  :  "  Above  all  things  pre- 
serve the  Kirk  from  the  bondage  of  the  Universities." 
It  was  here  that  he  was  brought  into  momentary 
contact    with    a     movement    which    was    to    have 
enduring  importance  for  the  Church,  but  of  which 
even    his    penetration    did   not  at  the  time  foresee 
the  issues.     The  Government,  under  the  regency  of 
the  Earl  of  Mar,  was  pressed  for  money  ;  and  again 
the    plan   of   squeezing  it  out  of  the  Church  was 
resorted    to.      It  was  in    the    brain  of  the  Earl  of 
1  break  in  pieces. 


88  JOHN  KNOX 

Morton,  subsequently  Regent,  that  the  device  of 
Tulchan  Bishops  was  fabricated — that  is,  of  reviving 
the  office  of  bishop,  but  only  for  the  purpose  of 
allowing  the  Government  with  a  show  of  legality 
to  draw  the  salary,  while  the  incumbent  contented 
himself  with  a  small  moiety  of  the  same.  One 
of  these  new  prelates  was  appointed  Archbishop 
of  St.  Andrews  while  Knox  was  there ;  but 
the  aged  Reformer  refused  to  bear  any  part 
in  the  proceedings.  He  is  said  to  have  had  no 
conscientious  objections  to  the  office  itself;  but,  at 
all  events,  Beza,  with  whom  he  was  corresponding 
on  the  subject,  gave  no  uncertain  warning  of  the 
danger  which,  in  no  long  time,  was  to  become 
manifest  enough  in  Scotland. 

In  August  1572  Knox  returned  to  Edinburgh; 
and,  the  same  month,  came  from  France  the 
news  of  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew.  Once 
more  all  the  fire  of  his  nature  blazed  up  in 
a  denunciation  which  he  pronounced  from  the 
pulpit  of  St.  Giles'  against  the  latest  act  of  that 
bloody  House,  which  he  looked  upon  as  the  worst 
enemy  of  Scotland  and  of  Protestantism.  But 
this  was  almost  the  last  effort  of  his  declining 
strength.  They  had  to  partition  off  a  little  space 
in  his  great  church,  where  he  could  still  preach 
to  a  few,  when  his  voice  was  too  weak  to  overtake 


JOHN  KNOX  89 

the  multitude.  He  had  the  felicity  of  seeing  a 
colleague — James  Lawson  from  Aberdeen— settled 
over  his  old  congregation  ;  and  his  own  very  last 
appearance  in  public  was  at  the  induction  of  Lawson 
on  9  November. 

At  length  he  who  had  encountered  so  many 
adversaries  was  called  upon  to  meet  the  last  enemy  ; 
and  it  was  given  him  to  do  so  not  only  so  as  to 
enjoy  comfort  himself  but  to  leave  also  to  his 
friends  and  to  posterity  the  assurance  that  he  had 
obtained  the  victory.1  Two  days  after  the  induction 
of  Lawson,  he  was  taken  with  a  sore  cough,  which 
annoyed  and  enfeebled  him.  Paying  his  servant, 
Jamie  Campbell,  his  wages  that  day,  he  added : 
"  Thou  wilt  get  no  more  of  me  in  this  life  "  ;  and 
so  he  gave  him  twenty  shillings  extra.  On  Friday 
he  rose  about  his  accustomed  hour,  but  was  unable 
to  stand ;  and,  when  asked  for  what  purpose  he 
rose,  he  said  that  he  was  going  to  Church  to  preach, 
for  he  thought  it  had  been  Sunday  ;  all  night  he 
had  been  meditating  on  the  resurrection  of  Christ, 
on  which  he  was  to  discourse  after  doing  so  on 
His  death  ;  many  times  he  had  prayed  that  he 
might  end  his  ministry  by  preaching  on  that  doctrine. 
On  Saturday  he  was  able  to  sit  down  at  table  for 
1  Narratives  by  Bannatyne  and  Lawson  in  Works,  vi. 


9o  JOHN  KNOX 

the  last  time  ;  two  acquaintances,  John  Durie  and 
Archibald  Stewart,  dining  with  him.  He  caused 
pierce  a  hogshead  of  wine  which  was  in  the  cellar, 
"and  willed  the  said  Archibald  to  send  for  the 
same  as  long  as  it  lasted  ;  for  he  would  not  tarry 
till  it  was  drunken."  On  Sunday  he  kept  his  bed 
but  desired  the  office-bearers  of  the  Church  to 
come  and  see  him.  This  they  did  next  day ; 
and  he  was  able  to  speak,  reviewing  his  ministry 
among  them  and  exhorting  them  so  tenderly  that 
they  departed  with  tears.  But,  retaining  Lawson 
and  Lindsay,  he  directed  them  to  carry  a  last 
message  of  warning  to  Kirkcaldy  of  Grange  in  the 
Castle  ;  "  For,"  said  he,  "  the  man's  soul  is  dear  unto 
me,  and  I  would  not  have  it  perish,  if  I  could  save 
it."  He  was  the  worse  of  the  effort  to  address  the 
representatives  of  the  congregation  and  could  not 
afterwards  speak  without  pain.  Still  he  had  an 
apt  word  for  everyone  who  came  to  visit  him  ;  and, 
many  did  so,  among  them  Lord  Boyd,  Lord  Morton, 
Lord  Lindsay,  Lord  Ruthven  and  Lord  Glencairn. 

When  a  pious  gentlewoman  began  to  praise  God 
for  what  he  had  been,  he  turned  on  her  with, 
"  Tongue  !  tongue  !  lady  ;  flesh  of  itself  is  over- 
proud  and  needs  no  means  to  esteem  itself."  On 
another  occasion,  coming  out  of  a  fit  of  abstraction, 
in  which  he  had  exhibited  signs  of  deep  distress, 


JOHN  KNOX  9I 

he  said  :  "  I  have  before  this  sustained  many  conflicts 
in  this  frail  life  and  many  assaults  from  Satan,  but 
at  this  time  that  roaring  lion  hath  most  furiously 
attacked  me  and  put  forth  all  his  strength,  that 
he  might  devour  and  make  an  end  of  me  at  once. 
Often  before  hath  he  placed  my  sins  before  my 
eyes,  often  tempted  me  to  despair,  often  has  he 
endeavoured  to  entangle  me  with  the  allurements 
of  the  world ;  but,  these  weapons  being  broken 
by  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  Word  of 
God,  he  could  accomplish  nothing.  But  now  he 
has  attacked  me  in  another  way  ;  for  the  cunning 
serpent  has  endeavoured  to  persuade  me  that  I 
have  merited  heaven  itself  and  a  blessed  immortality 
by  the  faithful  discharge  of  the  ministerial  office 
committed  to  me.  But  blessed  be  God,  who 
suggested  m  to  me  those  passages  of  Scripture  by 
which  I  was  able  to  grapple  with  him  and  ex- 
tinguish this  fiery  dart ;  among  which  were  these, 
"  What  hast  thou  that  thou  hast  not  received  ?  '  and, 
"  By  the  grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am  ; "  and, "  Not 
I,  but  the  grace  of  God  in  me  " ;  and,  thus  being 
vanquished,  he  went  away  ;  wherefore  I  give  thanks 
to  my  God  by  Jesus  Christ,  who  was  pleased  to 
grant  me  the  victory.  I  am  firmly  persuaded  that 
he  will  not  attack  me  further,  but  that,  in  a  short 
time,  without  any  great  bodily  pain  and  without 


92  JOHN  KNOX 

any  distress  of  mind,  I  shall  exchange  this  mortal 
and  miserable  life  for  an  immortal  and  blessed  life, 
through  Jesus  Christ." 

On  Friday  he  gave  orders  to  Richard  Bannatyne, 
his  secretary,  to  get  his  coffin  made  ready.  One 
more  Sunday  he  was  spared,  and,  when  most  of  the 
family  were  at  Church,  he  lay  thinking,  till  he  burst 
out  to  a  friend  who  had  continued  beside  him : 
"  These  two  last  nights  I  have  been  in  meditation 
on  the  Kirk  of  God,  the  Spouse  of  Jesus  Christ, 
despised  of  the  world  but  precious  in  His  sight,  I 
have  called  to  God  for  her,  and  committed  her  to 
her  Spouse,  Jesus  Christ.  I  have  been  righting 
against  Satan,  who  is  ever  ready  to  assault  ;  yea,  I 
have  fought  against  spiritual  wickedness  in  heavenly 
things  and  have  prevailed.  I  have  been  in  heaven 
and  have  possession,  and  I  have  tasted  of  the 
heavenly  joys,  where  presently  I  am."  After 
Church  many  came  in  to  see  him  ;  and,  when 
asked  if  he  had  any  pain,  he  replied  :  "  No  more 
pain  than  he  that  is  now  in  heaven.  I  am  content, 
if  God  so  please,  to  lie  here  for  seven  years." 

Monday,  24  November,  was  his  last  day  on 
earth.  He  rose  and  put  on  some  of  his  clothes, 
but  was  persuaded  to  go  to  bed  again  in  the  fore- 
noon. To  an  old  friend,  Robert  Campbell  of 
Kinzeancleugh,  he  said  :  "  I  must  leave  the  care  of 


JOHN  KNOX  93 

my  wife  and  bairns  unto  you,  to  whom  you  must 
be  a  husband  in  my  room."  Daily  those  around 
his  bed  had  been  wont  to  read  to  him  favourite 
passages  of  Scripture,  such  as  Isaiah  liii.  and  the 
Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  together  with  portions 
of  the  Psalter,  and  certain  sermons  of  Calvin. 
This  last  day,  he  caused  his  wife  to  read  i  Corin- 
thians xv.  and,  when  it  was  ended,  exclaimed  : 
"  Is  not  that  a  comfortable  chapter  ? "  At  five 
o'clock  he  said  to  her  again  :  "  Go  read  where  I 
cast  my  first  anchor,"  meaning  John  xvii.  It  was 
late  at  night  before  the  last  struggle  set  in.  Hearing 
him  give  a  long  sigh  and  a  sob,  his  servant  Richard 
sat  down  before  the  bed  and  said  :  "  Now  sir,  the 
time  that  you  have  long  called  to  God  for,  to  wit, 
an  end  of  your  battle,  is  come.  And,  seeing  all 
natural  power  now  fails,  remember  upon  those 
comfortable  promises  which  oftentimes  you  have 
shown  us  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  And,  that  we 
may  understand  and  know  that  you  hear  us,  make 
us  some  sign."  And  so  he  lifted  up  one  hand  and 
immediately  thereafter  rendered  his  spirit,  sleeping 
away  without  pain  about  eleven  at  night. 

"  On  this  manner,"  as  the  faithful  Richard  remarks, 
"  departed  this  man  of  God,  the  light  of  Scotland, 
the  comfort  of  the  Kirk  within  the  same,  the  mirror 
of  godliness,  and  a  pattern  and  example  to  all  true 


94  JOHN  KNOX 

ministers  in  purity  of  life,  soundness  of  doctrine,  and 
boldness  in  reproof  of  wickedness."  No  better 
inscription  could  have  been  placed  on  his  tombstone ; 
but  the  sentence  of  the  Regent  Morton,  uttered  at 
the  side  of  his  open  grave,  is  the  epitaph  which 
has  caught  the  fancy  of  posterity  and  sums  up  the 
veneration  and  gratitude  of  his  fellow-countrymen  : 
"  Here  lies  one  who  never  feared  the  face  of  man." 


BOOK    SECOND 
HIS  IDEAS 


95 


CHAPTER     I. 

HIS   BOOKS 

T  N  the  preface  to  the  only  sermon  of  his  ever 
published  Knox  says  :  "  Wonder  not,  Christian 
reader,  that  of  all  my  study  and  travail  within  the 
Scriptures  of  God  these  twenty  years  I  have  set 
forth  nothing  in  expounding  any  portion  of  Scripture 
except  this  only  rude  and  indigested  sermon, 
preached  by  me  in  the  public  audience  of  the 
Church  of  Edinburgh  the  day  of  the  year  above 
mentioned.  That  I  did  not,  in  writing,  communicate 
my  judgment  upon  the  Scriptures,  I  have  ever 
thought  and  yet  think  myself  to  have  most  just 
reason.  For,  considering  myself  rather  called  of 
my  God  to  instruct  the  ignorant,  comfort  the 
sorrowful,  encourage  the  weak,  and  rebuke  the 
proud,  by  tongue  and  lively  voice,  in  these  most 
corrupt  days,  than  to  compose  books  for  the  age 
to  come,  seeing  that  so  much  is  written,  and  that 

97  7 


98  JOHN  KNOX 

by  men  of  most  singular  condition,  and  yet  so  little 
observed,  I  decreed  to  contain  myself  within  the 
bounds  of  that  vocation  whereunto  I  found  myself 
especially  called."  In  spite,  however,  of  this  modest 
disclaimer,  Knox  is  a  fairly  voluminous  author  ;  his 
works,  in  the  classical  edition  of  David  Laing,  filling 
six  considerable  volumes.  Many  of  them  were, 
indeed,  so  occasional,  called  forth  by  the  demands 
of  the  hour,  that  he  may  hardly  have  thought  of 
them  as  serious  efforts  in  literature  ;  but  the 
character  thus  impressed  upon  them — of  casts 
taken  straight  from  events — lends  to  them  for 
posterity  a  peculiar  value ;  and,  together,  they  at 
the  same  time  afford  a  tolerably  sufficient  image 
of  the  author's  mind. 

Let  us  run  through  the  list  of  Knox's  works, 
adding  a  few  words  of  description  and  quoting  a  few 
brief  passages  especially  characteristic  of  the  mind 
by  which  they  were  produced. 

I.  An  Epistle  to  the  Congregation  of  the  Castle 
of  St.  Andrews,  with  a  Brief  Summary  of  Balnaves 
on  Justification  by  Faith.  1548,  written  on  board 
the  galley  of  Notre  Dame.  24  pages. 

"  That  ye  may  plainly  know,"  he  remarks  in  the 
preface,  "  whereby  are  Satan  and  the  world  over- 
come, and  which  are  the  weapons  against  which 
they  may  not  stand,  ye  shall  read  diligently  this 


HIS  IDEAS  99 

work  following  ;  which,  I  am  sure,  no  man  having 
the  Spirit  of  God  shall  think  tedious  or  long, 
because  it  contains  ' nothing  except  the  very 
Scriptures  of  God  and  meditations  of  His  law ; 
wherein  is  the  whole  study  of  the  godly  man  both 
day  and  night,  knowing  that  therein  are  found  only 
wisdom,  prudence,  liberty  and  life.  And,  therefore, 
in  reading,  talking  or  meditation  thereof  he  is  never 
satiate.  But,  as  for  the  ungodly,  because  their 
works  are  wicked,  they  may  not  abide  the  light. 
And  therefore  they  abhor  all  godly  writings,  thinking 
them  tedious  though  they  contain  not  the  length  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer." 

2.  A    Vindication  of  the  Doctrine  that  the  Sacrifice 
of  the  Mass  is  Idolatry.   1550,  delivered  at  Durham, 
in     the     presence    of    Bishop    Tonstall    and    other 
principalities  and    powers.      A   highly  characteristic 
utterance,  clothed  in  the  form  of  a  scholastic  dis- 
putation.     37  pages. 

3.  A  Summary,  according  to  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
of  t/ie  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper.     Same  date. 
A  supplement    to    the    preceding    treatise,     setting 
forth  what  the  Lord's  Supper  is,  after  it  has  been 
proved   what   it  is  not.     3   pages. 

4.  A    Declaration  of  the  True  Nature  of  Prayer. 
1553,  before  Knox  had  quitted   England,  after  the 
death   of  King   Edward  VI.,   to  whom   a  pathetic 


loo  JOHN  KNOX 

reference  is  made  in  a  prayer  at  the    end  for  the 
new  Queen.     20  pages. 

5.  An  Exposition  upon  the  Sixth  Psalm  of  David. 
Addressed  to  Mrs.  Bowes.     1554,  written  at  Dieppe, 
when     Knox   was    escaping    from    England.       The 
hold  which  England  had  taken  of  his  heart  during 
the  years  he  had  been  a  preacher  there  is  indicated 
in  the  following    sentences  :  "  My   daily    prayer    is 
for  the  sore  afflicted   in   those  quarters.      Sometimes 
I   have  thought  that  impossible  it  had  been  so  to 
have    removed    my    affection    from     the     realm    of 
Scotland  that  any  realm  or  nation  could  have  been 
equally  dear  unto  me.      But  God   I   take  to  record 
in    my    conscience,  that    the    troubles    present   and 
appearing  to  be  in  the  realm  of  England  are  doubly 
more  dolorous  unto  my   heart   than  ever  were  the 
troubles  of  Scotland."      37  pages. 

6.  A  Godly  Letter  of  Warning  or  Admonition  to  the 
Faithful  in   London,  Newcastle  and  Berwick.    1554, 
dated    "  upon   my   departure  from   Dieppe,   whither 
God  knoweth."      This   is   an    affectionate    message 
to  those  among  whom  he  had  laboured  in  England, 
and    contains    many    interesting    references    to    his 
own    life    there.      Its    aim    is    to   warn   against   the 
idolatry  of  the   Mass,  and    it    contains  a  sustained 
comparison  between  the  condition  of  England  and 
that  of  Judah  in  the  days  of  Jeremiah.      5 1  pages. 


HIS  IDEAS  101 

7.  Certain      Questions    concerning    Obedience    to 
Lawful   Magistrates,    with    Answers    by    Bullinger. 
1554.       Extracted     from     the     correspondence     of 
Bullinger,  the  Reformer  of  Zurich,  with  whom  Knox 
became  acquainted   during    his  wanderings   abroad, 
after  he  had  been  exiled  from   England.     6  pages. 

8.  Two  Comfortable  Epistles  to  his  Afflicted  Brethren 
in  England.     1554,  written   from   Dieppe,  to  which 
he  had  returned  in  the  hope  of  hearing  news  from 
across  the  Channel.     "  My  own  estate  is  this,"  says 
he  in  the  first  of  these  documents :  "  since  the  28 
January  I  have  travelled  through  all  the  congregations 
of  Helvetia,  and  have  reasoned  with  all  the  pastors 
and  many  other  excellently  learned  men  upon  such 
matters  as  now   I  cannot  commit  to  writing  ;  gladly 
I  would  by  tongue  or  by   pen   utter  the    same  to 
God's  glory."    18  pages. 

9.  A  Faithful  Admonition  to  the  Professors  of 
Gods  Truth  in  England.  1554,  written  from  Dieppe, 
where  Knox  was  still  sojourning,  in  the  hope  of 
receiving  news  from  the  opposite  side  of  the 
Channel.  67  pages. 

This  is  one  of  his  most  slashing  productions. 
One  item  of  news  that  had  been  wafted  across  from 
England  to  Dieppe  was  the  impending  marriage  of 
the  Queen  to  Philip  of  Spain,  the  head  of  the 
Catholic  party  in  Europe.  To  both  husband  and 


102  JOHN  KNOX 

wife  he  refers  in  terms  the  reverse  of  parliamentary, 
saying  of  the  latter  that  "  under  an  English  name 
she  beareth  a  Spanish  heart."  But  the  following 
outbreak  against  Gardiner,  the  persecuting  Bishop 
of  Winchester,  may  be  quoted  as  a  classical  example 
of  what  Knox  was  able  to  do  in  the  way  of 
invective  : — 

"  And  what  is  the  cause  that  Winchester,  and 
the  rest  of  his  pestilent  sect,  so  greedily  would 
have  a  Spaniard  to  reign  over  England  ?  The 
cause  is  manifest.  For,  as  that  whole  nation 
surmounteth  all  others  in  pride  and  whoredom, 
so  for  idolatry  and  vain  papistical  and  devilish 
ceremonies  they  may  rightly  be  called  the  very 
sons  of  superstition.  And  therefore  are  they  found 
and  judged  by  the  progeny  of  Antichrist  most  apt 
instruments  to  maintain,  establish  and  defend  the 
kingdom  of  that  cruel  beast,  whose  head  and  wound 
is  lately  cured  within  England,  which,  alas  for  pity ! 
must  now  be  brought  into  bondage  and  thraldom, 
that  pestilent  papists  may  reign  without  punishment. 
But,  O  thou  beast ! — I  speak  to  you,  Winchester — 
more  cruel  than  any  tiger,  shall  neither  shame, 
neither  fear,  neither  benefits  received  bridle  thy 
tyrannous  cruelty?  Art  thou  not  ashamed,  bloody 
beast,  to  betray  thy  native  country  and  the  liberties 
of  the  same  ?  Fearest  thou  not  to  open  such  a  door 


HIS  IDEAS  ,03 

to  all  iniquity,  that  whole  England  shall  be  made 
a  common  stew  to  Spaniards  ?  Wilt  thou  recompense 
the  benefits  which  thou  hast  received  of  that  noble 
realm  with  such  ingratitude?  Rememberest  thou 
not  that  England  hath  brought  thee  forth?  that 
England  hath  nourished  thee?  that  England  hath 
promoted  thee  to  riches,  honour  and  high  promotion  ? 
And  wilt  thou  now,  O  wretched  caitiff!  for  all 
these  manifold  benefits  received,  be  the  cause 
that  England  shall  not  be  England  ?  Yea,  verily, 
for  so  wilt  thou  gratify  thy  father  the  Devil  and 
his  lieutenant  the  Pope,  whom  with  all  his  baggage 
thou  labourest  now,  with  tooth  and  nail,  to  flourish 
again  in  England.  Albeit,  like  a  dissembling 
hypocrite  and  double-faced  wretch,  thou,  being 
thereto  compelled  by  the  invincible  verity  of  God's 
holy  Word,  wrotest  long  ago  thy  book,  entitled  True 
Obedience,  against  that  monstrous  whore  of  Babylon 
and  her  falsely  usurped  power  and  authority,  now 
to  thy  perpetual  shame  thou  returnest  to  thy  vomit, 
and  art  become  an  open  arch-papist  again.  Further- 
more, why  seekest  thou  the  blood  of  Thomas, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  of  good  Father  Hugh 
Latimer,  and  of  that  most  earnest  and  discreet 
man,  Doctor  Ridley,  true  Bishop  of  London  ?  Dost 
thou  not  consider  that  the  lenity,  the  sincere  doctrine, 
pure  life,  godly  conversation  and  discreet  counsel 


104  JOHN  KNOX 

of  these  three  is  notably  known  in  more  realms 
than  England  ?  Shamest  thou  not  to  seek  the 
destruction  of  those  who  laboured  for  the  safeguard 
of  thy  life  and  obtained  the  same,  when  thou 
justly  deservedst  death  ?  O  thou  son  of  Satan,  well 
declarest  thou  that  nothing  can  mollify  the  cruel 
malice  nor  purge  the  deadly  venom  of  him  in 
whose  heart  the  Devil  beareth  dominion.  Thou 
art  brother  to  Cain  and  fellow  to  Judas,  the  traitor  ; 
and  therefore  canst  thou  do  nothing  but  thirst  the 
blood  of  Abel  and  betray  Jesus  Christ  and  His 
eternal  verity."  l 

It  was  this  tract  that  was  employed  for  the 
purpose  of  chasing  Knox  from  Frankfort,  as  has 
been  mentioned  above  ;  and  his  opponents  on  that 
occasion  made  the  following  extraordinary  statement 
about  the  effects  it  produced  in  England  :  "  This 
we  can  assure  you,  that  that  outrageous  pamphlet 
of  Knox's  added  much  oil  to  the  flame  of  perse- 
cution in  England.  For,  before  the  publication  of 
that  work,  not  one  of  our  brethren  had  suffered 
death ;  but,  as  soon  as  it  came  forth,  we  doubt 
not  but  that  you  are  well  aware  of  the  number  of 
excellent  men  who  have  perished  in  the  flames ; 
to  say  nothing  of  how  many  other  godly  men 
besides  have  been  exposed  to  the  risk  of  all  their 
1  Works,  iii.  297-9. 


HIS  IDEAS  105 

property,  and  even  life  itself,  upon  the  sole  ground 
of  either  having  had  this  book  in  their  possession 
or  having  read  it ;  who  were  perhaps  rescued  from 
the  sword  at  greater  cost  and  danger  of  life  than 
the  others  offered  their  necks  to  it."  But  it  is  not 
to  be  forgotten  that  this  statement  comes  from 
partisans,  whose  notions,  as  their  own  last  words 
appear  to  prove,  were  not  as  clear  as  their  prejudices 
were  emphatic. 

The  whole  treatise,  it  may  be  added,  is  in  the 
form  of  a  commentary  on  the  miracle  of  Christ 
walking  on  the  water ;  and  its  purpose  is  to  warn 
professing  Christians  against  the  sin  of  attending 
Mass,  "  under  pretence  that  they  may  keep  faith 
secretly  in  the  heart  and  yet  do  as  idolaters  do, 
begin  now  to  fall  before  that  idol." 

I  o.  A  Letter  to  the  Queen  Dowager,  Regent  of  Scot- 
land. 1 556,  written  during  Knox's  momentous  visit  to 
Scotland  on  the  occasion  of  his  marriage.  It  was 
republished  in  1558,  in  an  augmented  but  certainly 
not  improved  version.  In  its  original  form  it  might 
be  quoted  as  a  good  example  of  Knox's  style, 
when  he  wrote  under  the  restraint  of  good  sense 
and  good  feeling  ;  but  he  marred  it  in  the  second 
edition  by  giving  way  to  angry  passion.  10  pages. 

II.  An  Exposition  upon  Matthew  iv.,  concerning 
the  Temptation  of  Christ  in  t/ie  Wilderness.  15  56, 


106  JOHN  KNOX 

delivered  as  a  sermon  in  Scotland  and  written  out 
subsequently  at  the  request  of  some  hearer.  It 
is  an  unfinished  production,  these  words  beginning 
the  last  paragraph  :  "  Sundry  impediments  now  do 
call  me  from  writing  in  this  matter ;  but,  by  God's 
grace,  at  convenient  leisure,  I  purpose  to  finish  and 
to  send  unto  you.  I  grant,  the  matter  that  pro- 
ceedeth  from  me  is  not  worthy  your  labour  and 
pains  to  read  it ;  yet,  seeing  it  is  a  testimony  of 
my  good  mind  towards  you,  I  doubt  not  but  you 
will  accept  it  in  good  part."  20  pages. 

12.  Answers  to  some  Questions  concerning  Baptism. 
1556,  apparently  also  connected  with  the  same  visit 
to   Scotland.     The  question   is  whether  baptism  in 
the  Roman  Church  is  valid,  or  whether  Protestants 
require  to  be  rebaptized.      There  are  also  questions 
about  the  eating  of  blood  and  about  tithes.      10  pages. 

13.  A  Letter  of  Wholesome   Counsel,  addressed  to 
his  Brethren  in  Scotland.      1556,  as  he  was  leaving 
the  country.      8  pages. 

14.  The  Form  of  Prayers  and  Ministration  of  the 
Sacraments  used  in  the  English  Congregation  at  Geneva. 
1556,  Knox  being  then  minister  there.      57  pages. 

1 5.  Letters  to  his  Brethren  and  the  Lords  professing 
ttie  Truth  in  Scotland.     1557,  written  from  Dieppe,  on 
the  occasion  of  a  false  start  for  Scotland.      Refers 
to    two   new  dangers    to   the    cause — false  teachers 


HIS  IDEAS  107 

and    dissolute    preachers    even    among    Protestants. 
26  pages. 

1 6.  An  Apology  for  the  Protestants  who  are  holden 
in  Prison  at  Paris  ;  translated  from  the  French  with 
Additions.      1557,  written    at  Dieppe,  where  Knox 
was  waiting  for  news  from  Scotland.     The  Additions 
are  in  his  liveliest  manner.     49  pages. 

1 7.  The  First  Blast  of  the   Trumpet  against  the 
Monstrous  Regiment  of  Women.     1558.     "  Regiment " 
means  Government     60  pages. 

1 8  The  Appellation  from  the  Sentence  pronounced 
by  the  Bishops  and  Clergy :  addressed  to  tJte  Nobility 
and  Estates  of  Scotland,  1558,  written  before  his 
final  return  to  Scotland.  At  the  close  of  his  previous 
visit,  the  Romanists  had  burnt  him  in  effigy,  after 
degrading  him  from  the  priesthood  and  consigning 
his  soul  to  hell  and  his  body  to  the  tender  mercies 
of  the  secular  arm.  Knox  appeals  first,  as  Luther 
had  done,  to  a  General  Council,  but  also  to  the 
nobility  of  his  native  land,  against  the  machinations 
of  "  false  prophets,  flattering  friars,  and  other  such 
venomous  locusts."  53  pages. 

19.  A    Letter   addressed    to    tlie     Commonalty   oj 
Scotland.      1558,  same  occasion.      15  pages. 

20.  An  Epistle  to  the  Inhabitants  of  Newcastle  and 
Berwick.      1558,    written    from    Geneva;    seems    to 
indicate   that  the  persecutions  of  Mary  Tudor  had 


io8  JOHN  KNOX 

nearly  obliterated   the  work  of  the  Reformation  in 
the  North  of  England.      19  pages. 

21.  A  Brief  Exhortation  to  England,  for  the  Speedy 
Embracing    of   the     Gospel.      1558,    same     occasion. 
Subjoined    is    a    list  of  the  names   of  the  martyrs 
who  had  suffered  during  the  reign  of  Bloody  Mary. 
20  pages. 

22.  An  Answer  to  the  Cavillations  of  an  Adversary 
respecting  the  Doctrine  of  Predestination.      1 560.     448 
pages. 

23.  The  Reasoning  betwixt  the  Abbot  of  Crossraguel 
and  John  Knox  concerning  the  Mass.      1562.      This 
disputation    took    place    at    Maybole  in   September 
of   this    year,   and    the    Abbot    of  Crossraguel  was 
Quentin  Kennedy,  son  of  the  Earl  of  Cassilis,  born 
1520,    died    1564.      He    was    the  author   of  several 
works   in   defence  of  the   old  Church  ;  but  on  this 
occasion    he  behaved   like  a  sulking  salmon,  which 
no  skill  of  the  angler  can  move  ;  for  he  dived  to  the 
bottom  at  the  very  commencement  of  the  argument, 
alleging    that    the   Mass  was  typified   by  the  bread 
and  wine  offered  by  Melchizedec  to  Abraham  ;  and 
Knox    endeavoured  in  vain    to    broaden  the  scope 
of  the  discussion.     48  pages. 

24.  A    Sermon  on    Isaiah  xxvi.     1 3-2 1,  preached 
in  St.   Giles    Church,  Edinburgh,    19  August   1565. 
For  preaching  this    sermon,  which  gave  offence  to 


HIS  IDEAS  109 

Darnley,    who   heard    it,    Knox   was  silenced  ;  and 
he  printed  it  in  self-vindication.     44  pages. 

25.  The  Book  of  Common  Order ;  or  the  Form  of 
Prayers  and  Ministration  of  the  Sacraments  approved 
and  received  by  the  Church  of  Scotland.      \  564. 

26.  The  Order  of  the  General  Fast  and  the  Form 
of  Excommunication  approved  by  the  General  Assembly 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland.      1566.    78  pages. 

27.  An  Answer  to  a  Letter  written  by  James  Tyrie, 
a  Scottish  Jesuit.      1572.      Tyrie  had  endeavoured  to 
convert   his    own  brother,   a    Protestant,  to  the  old 
faith,  "  with  all    the  dog  eloquence  that   Satan  can 
devise  for  suppressing  the  free  progress  of  the  Evangel 
of  Jesus  Christ "  ;   and  the  brother  requested  Knox 
to  write  an  answer.     40  pages. 

28.  Letters    by,    to,    and    about     Knox.     These 
extend  from    1553  to   1572.     The  majority  of  them 
are  addressed  to  female  correspondents  and  reveal  a 
side  of  Knox's  personality  which  Mr.  Taylor  Innes 
has  delineated  with  inimitable  sympathy  and  insight 
in  a  chapter  of  his  John  Knox  entitled  "  His  Women 
Friends."     230  pages. 

29.  The    History  of  the  Reformation   of  Religion 
within    the    Realm    of   Scotland.      This    is     Knox's 
masterpiece,   and  forms  vols.  i.  and   ii.  of  his  Col- 
lected    Works.      He    was    moved    to  undertake  it 
by  the    Lords  of  the  Congregation,  who  desired  a 


no  JOHN  KNOX 

vindication  of  their  conduct  towards  Mary  of  Lorraine 
to  be  placed  on  record.  In  fulfilment  of  this  instruc- 
tion he  penned  Books  II.  and  III.,  which  supply 
an  account  by  a  keen  eye-witness  of  the  most 
momentous  years  of  Scottish  history — that  is  to  say, 
from  the  commencement  of  the  struggle  with  Mary 
of  Lorraine  to  the  arrival  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots 
in  the  country  ;  the  author  printing  verbatim  the 
documents  on  both  sides,  in  which  the  very  soul 
of  the  struggle  was  embodied.  He  was  afterwards 
persuaded  to  add  Book  I.,  in  order  to  explain  the 
historical  origin  of  the  Reformation,  by  going  back 
to  the  earliest  efforts  towards  reform,  and  especially 
to  the  fortunes  of  his  own  predecessors,  Hamilton 
and  Wishart  In  1556,  when  Queen  Mary  had 
upset  her  own  throne,  Knox  added  Book  IV.,  the 
most  interesting  of  all,  in  which  occur  his  interviews 
with  the  Queen  ;  the  story  being  brought  down  to 
1564.  Book  V.  is  a  compilation  by  an  editor,  who 
made  use  of  papers  left  by  Knox  in  an  unfinished 
state  ;  it  brings  the  story  down  to  1 566. 

As  Dr.  Hume  Brown  has  well  observed,  the  most 
prominent  characteristic  of  Knox  as  a  historian  is 
his  abounding  vitality.  "  From  the  '  meary  bourds ' 
with  which  he  enlivens  his  narrative  we  may  infer 
that  his  daily  conversation  was  not  always  of 
justification  and  predestination  ;  but  that  he  could 


HIS  IDEAS  in 

tell  his  story  and  exchange  his  jest  as  time  and 
place  were  fitting.  What  distinguishes  him  from 
men  like  Calvin  or  Savonarola  is  precisely  that 
sense  of  a  humorous  side  of  things,  which  made  him 
at  once  a  great  writer  and  a  great  leader  of  men. 
Of  the  value  of  this  quality  in  the  conduct  of 
human  affairs  he  was  himself  perfectly  conscious, 
and  deliberately  employed  it,  both  in  his  writings  and 
in  his  dealings  with  his  fellows.  '  Melancholius 
ressouns,'  he  said  in  one  of  his  debates  with 
Lethington,  '  wald  haif  sum  myrth  intermixed.' 
Studied  anticlimax,  grim  irony,  humorous  exaggera- 
tion are  as  distinctively  his  characteristics  as  they 
are  those  of  Carlyle,  in  whom  also  these  are 
relieving  qualities  to  narrow  intensity  and  an  over- 
bearing temper.  With  humour  is  usually  found 
pity  and  the  power  of  pathos  ;  and  in  Knox,  more 
than  once,  his  harsh  austerity  softens  into  a  mood 
the  more  impressive  that  it  comes  so  seldom."  l  He 
has  the  power,  which  someone  has  ascribed  to  Dante, 
of  seizing  a  character  by  the  scalp,  bending  back 
the  head,  and  imprinting  on  the  brow  an  ineffaceable 
brand.  The  instinct  for  documents,  the  power  of 
vision  and  the  power  of  expression,  with  a  patriotism 
which  enables  him  to  sympathize  with  the  fortunes 
of  the  country  the  history  of  which  he  is  narrating, 
1  HUME  BROWN  :  John  Knox,  ii.  224. 


H2  JOHN  KNOX 

may  be  mentioned  among  his  prominent  qualities 
as  a  historian.  Of  the  last-mentioned  quality  a 
little  trait  occurs  to  me,  in  which  Knox  describes 
the  treatment  of  "  a  born  Scottish  man,"  by  one  of 
the  French  soldiery  imported  by  Mary  of  Lorraine  : 
"  There  was  a  poor  craftsman,  who  had  bought  for 
his  victuals  a  grey  loaf,  and  was  cutting  a  morsel 
of  it,  and  was  putting  the  rest  of  it  in  his  bosom. 
The  tyrant  came  to  him  and,  with  the  poor  caitiffs 
own  whinger,  first  struck  him  in  the  breast  and, 
after,  cast  it  at  him  ;  and  so,  the  poor  man  staggering 
and  falling,  the  merciless  tyrant  ran  him  through 
with  his  rapier,  and  thereafter  commanded  him  to 
be  hanged  over  the  stair.  Lord,  Thou  wilt  yet 
look,  and  recompense  such  tyranny,  how  con- 
temptible that  ever  the  person  was." 

One  or  two  specimens  may  be  given  of  the 
author's  most  characteristic  vein  ;  and  in  the  second 
of  these  it  will  be  noticed  that  he  is  dealing  with 
a  subject — the  martyrdom  of  Wishart — in  which, 
it  is  certain,  his  deepest  feelings  were  engaged  ; 
and  yet  he  cannot  refrain  from  giving  way  to 
a  derisive  and  sarcastic  style. 

"  At  last  at  God's  good  pleasure  arrived  John 
Willock  the  second  time  from  Embden  ;  whose 
return  was  so  joyful  to  the  brethren  that  their  zeal 
and  godly  courage  daily  increased.  And,  albeit  he 


HIS  IDEAS  1,3 

contracted  a  dangerous  sickness,  yet  he  ceased  not 
from  labours,  but  taught  and  exhorted  from  his 
bed  :  some  of  the  nobility  (of  whom  some  are 
fallen  back,  amongst  whom  the  Lord  Seaton  is 
chief),  with  many  barons  and  gentlemen,  were  his 
auditors,  and  by  him  were  godly  instructed  and 
wondrously  comforted.  They  kept  their  conven- 
tions and  held  counsels  with  such  gravity  and 
closeness  that  the  enemies  trembled.  The  images 
were  stolen  away  in  all  parts  of  the  country  ;  and 
in  Edinburgh  was  that  great  idol  called  Saint  Giles 
first  drowned  in  the  North  Loch,  afterwards  burnt, 
which  raised  no  small  trouble  in  the  town.  For, 
the  friars  croaking *  like  ravens  upon  the  bishops, 
the  bishops  ran  upon  the  Queen,  who  to  them  was 
favourable  enough,  but  that  she  thought  it  could 
not  stand  with  her  advantage  to  offend  such  a 
multitude  as  then  took  upon  them  the  defence  of 
the  Evangel  and  the  name  of  Protestants.  And  yet 
consented  she  to  summon  the  preachers  ;  whereat 
the  Protestants,  neither  offended  nor  yet  thereof 
afraid,  determined  to  keep  the  day  of  summons  ;  as 
that  they  did.  Which  perceived  by  the  prelates 
and  priests,  they  procured  a  proclamation  to  be 
publicly  made,  that  all  men  who  were  come  to 
the  town  without  commandment  of  the  authority 
1  "  rowping." 


H4  JOHN  KNOX 

should  with  all  diligence  repair  to  the  Borders  and 
there  remain  fifteen  days  ;  for  the  Bishop  of 
Galloway,  in  this  manner  of  rhyme,  said  to  the 
Queen  : 

Madame,  because  they  are  come  without  order, 
I  red  ye,  send  them  to  the  Border. 

"  Now  so  had  God  provided  that  the  quarter  of 
the  West-land  (in  the  which  were  many  faithful 
men)  was  that  same  day  returned  from  the  Border  ; 
who,  understanding  the  matter  to  proceed  from 
the  malice  of  the  priests,  assembled  themselves 
together,  and  made  passage  to  themselves,  till  they 
came  to  the  very  privy  chamber,  where  the  Queen 
Regent  and  the  bishops  were.  The  gentlemen 
began  to  complain  upon  their  strange  entertainment, 
considering  that  her  Grace  had  found  in  them  so 
faithful  obedience  in  all  things  lawful.  While  the 
Queen  began  to  craft,  a  zealous  and  a  bold  man, 
James  Chalmers  of  Gadgirth,  said  :  '  Madam,  we 
know  that  this  is  the  malice  and  device  of  these 
knaves  and  of  that  bastard  (meaning  the  Bishop 
of  St.  Andrews)  that  stands  by  you.  We  avow 
to  God,  we  shall  make  a  day  of  it.  They  oppress 
us  and  our  tenants  for  feeding  of  their  idle  bellies  ; 
they  trouble  our  preachers  and  would  murder 
them  and  us.  Shall  we  suffer  this  any  longer  ? 
No,  Madam,  it  shall  not  be.'  And  therewith  every 


HIS  IDEAS  115 

man  put  on  his  steel  bonnet.  There  was  heard 
nothing  of  the  Queen's  part  but  '  My  joys,  my 
hearts,  what  ails  you  ?  Me l  means  no  evil  to  you 
or  your  preachers.  The  bishops  shall  do  you 
no  wrong.  Ye  are  all  my  loving  subjects.  Me 
knew  nothing  of  this  proclamation.  The  day  of 
your  preachers  shall  be  discharged,  and  me  will 
hear  the  controversy  that  is  between  the  bishops 
and  you.  They  shall  do  you  no  wrong.'  '  My 
lords,'  she  said  to  the  bishops,  '  I  forbid  you 
either  to  trouble  them  or  their  preachers.'  And 
unto  the  gentlemen,  who  were  wonderfully  corn- 
moved,  she  turned  again  and  said,  '  O  my  hearts, 
should  ye  not  love  the  Lord  your  God  with  all 
your  heart,  with  all  your  mind,  and  should  ye 
not  love  your  neighbours  as  yourselves  ? '  With 
these  and  the  like  fair  words  she  kept  the  bishops 
from  buffets  at  that  time. 

"  And  so,  the  day  of  summons  being  discharged, 
began  the  brethren  universal  to  be  further  en- 
couraged. But  yet  could  the  bishops  in  no  sort 
be  quiet  ;  for,  Saint  Giles'  day  approaching,  they 
gave  charge  to  the  Provost,  Baillies  and  Council 
of  Edinburgh,  either  to  get  again  the  old  Saint 
Giles  or  else  upon  their  expense  to  make  a  new 
image.  The  Council  answered  that  to  them  the 
1  Frenchwoman's  pigeon  English. 


n6  JOHN  KNOX 

charge  appeared  very  unjust  ;  for  they  understood 
that  God  in  some  places  had  commanded  idols 
and  images  to  be  destroyed  ;  but  where  He  had 
commanded  images  to  be  set  up  they  had  not 
read,  and  desired  the  bishop  to  find  a  warrant 
for  his  commandment  Whereat  the  bishop 
offended,  admonished  under  pain  of  cursing  ;  which 
they  prevented  by  a  formal  appellation,  appealing 
from  him,  as  from  a  partial  and  corrupt  judge, 
unto  the  Pope's  Holiness  ;  and  so,  greater  things 
shortly  following,  that  passed  into  oblivion. 

"Yet  would  not  the  priests  and  friars  cease  to 
have  that  solemnity  and  manifest  abomination 
which  they  usually  had  upon  Saint  Giles'  day ; 
to  wit,  they  would  have  that  idol  borne  ;  and, 
therefore,  was  all  preparation  necessary  duly  made. 
A  marmoset  idol  was  borrowed  from  the  Grey 
Friars  (a  silver  piece  of  James  Carmichael  was 
laid  in  pledge).  It  was  fast  fixed  with  iron 
nails  upon  a  barrow  called  the  fertor.  There 
assembled  priests,  friars,  canons,  and  rotten 
papists,  with  tabrets  and  trumpets,  banners  and 
bagpipes ;  and  who  was  there  to  lead  the 
ring  but  the  Queen  Regent  herself  with  all  her 
shavelings  for  honour  of  that  feast !  West  about 
goes  it  and  comes  down  the  High  Street,  and 
down  to  the  Canoncross.  The  Queen  Regent 


7/75  IDEAS  117 

dined   that    day  in    Sandie    Carpetyne's   house  be- 
tween the  Bows ;   and  so,  when   the  idol  returned 
back  again,  she  left  it  and  passed  in  to  her  dinner. 
"  The  hearts    of   the  brethren  were    wonderfully 
inflamed,   and,  seeing  such  abomination    manifestly 
maintained,    were    decreed  to  be    revenged.     They 
were    divided    into  several   companies,  whereof  not 
one  knew  of  another.     There  were  some  temporisers 
that  day  (amongst  whom  David  Forres,  called  the 
General,   was  one),  who,  fearing   the  chance  to  be 
done    as    it    fell,    laboured    to    stay    the    brethren. 
But  that  could  not  be ;  for,  immediately  after  that 
the  Queen   was   entered    in    the  lodging,    some    of 
those  that  were  of  the  enterprise  drew  near  to  the 
idol,  as  willing  to  help  to  bear  him,  and,  getting 
the  fertor  upon   their  shoulders,  began  to  shudder, 
that  thereby  the  idol  should  have  fallen.     But  that 
was  prevented  by  the  iron  nails,  as  we  have  said  ; 
and   so  began   one   to   cry,  '  Down  with  the  idol  ! 
down    with    it!'       And   so    without  delay    it    was 
pulled  down.     Some  brag  made  the  priests'  patrons 
at    the  first  ;    but,    when    they   saw  the    feebleness 
of  their  god— for  one  took  him  by  the  heels,  and, 
thumping '   his  head   to  the   causeway,  left  Dagon 
without  head  or   hands,  and  said,  '  Fie  upon   thee, 
thou    young    Saint    Giles,    thy    father    would    have 
i  "dadding." 


1 18  JOHN  KNOX 

tarried  for  such ' — this  considered  (we  say)  the 
priests  and  friars  fled  faster  than  they  did  at  Pinkie 
Cleuch.  There  might  have  been  seen  so  sudden 
a  fray  as  seldom  has  been  seen  among  that  sort 
of  men  within  this  realm  ;  for  down  go  the  crosses, 
off  go  the  surplices.  The  Grey  Friars  gaped,  the 
Black  Friars  blew,  the  priests  panted  and  fled,  and 
happy  was  he  that  first  got  to  the  house  ;  for  such 
a  sudden  fray  came  never  amongst  the  generation 
of  Antichrist  within  this  realm  before." l 

The  second  extract  also  deals  with  a  tumult  of 
the  old  religion  : — 

"  How  the  servant  of  God  was  entreated,  and 
what  he  did  from  the  day  that  he  entered  within 
the  Sea-tower  of  Saint  Andrews,  which  was  in  the 
end  of  January  in  the  year  of  God  1546,  unto  the 
first  of  March  the  same  year,  when  he  suffered,  we 
cannot  certainly  tell,  except  we  understand  that 
he  wrote  somewhat  being  in  prison  ;  but  that  was 
suppressed  by  the  enemies.  The  Cardinal  delayed 
no  time,  but  caused  all  bishops,  yea,  all  the  clergy 
that  had  any  preeminence  to  be  called  to  Saint 
Andrews  against  the  penult  of  February,  that  con- 
sultation might  be  had  on  that  question  which  in 
his  mind  was  no  less  resolved  than  Christ's  death 
1  History,  i.  256  ff. 


ffJS  IDEAS  119 

was  in  the  mind  of  Caiaphas  ;  but,  that  the  rest 
should  bear  the  like  burden  with  him,  he  would 
that  they  should  before  the  world  subscribe  what- 
soever he  did.  In  that  day  was  wrought  no  less 
a  wonder  than  was  at  the  accusation  and  death 
of  Jesus  Christ,  when  that  Pilate  and  Herod,  who 
before  were  enemies,  were  made  friends  by  con- 
senting of  them  both  to  Christ's  condemnation ; 
differing  nothing  except  that  Pilate  and  Herod 
were  brethren,  under  their  father  the  Devil,  in  the 
estate  called  temporal,  and  these  two  of  whom  we 
are  to  speak  were  brethren,  sons  under  the  same 
father  the  Devil,  in  the  estate  ecclesiastical.  If  we 
interlace  merriness  with  earnest  matters,  pardon  us, 
good  reader  ;  for  the  fact  is  so  notable  that  it 
deserveth  long  memory. 

"  The  Cardinal  was  known  proud  ;  and  Dunbar, 
Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  was  known  a  glorious  fool  ; 
and  yet,  because  he  was  called  sometimes  the  King's 
Master,  he  was  Chancellor  of  Scotland.  The 
Cardinal  comes  even  this  same  year,  in  the  end 
of  harvest  before,  to  Glasgow  ;  upon  what  purpose 
we  omit.  But,  while  they  remain  together,  the  one 
in  the  town  the  other  in  the  Castle,  question  rises 
for  bearing  of  their  crosses.  The  Cardinal  alleged, 
by  reason  of  his  cardinalship,  that  he  was  Legatus 
Natus  and  Primate  within  Scotland  in  the  kingdom 


I2o  JOHN  KNOX 

of  Antichrist,  that  he  should  have  the  preeminence, 
and  that  his  cross  should  not  only  go  before,  but 
that  also  it  should  only  be  borne  wheresoever  he 
was.  Good  Gukstoun  Glaikstour,  the  foresaid  Arch- 
bishop, lacked  no  reasons,  as  he  thought,  for 
maintenance  of  his  glory  :  he  was  an  Archbishop 
in  his  own  diocese  and  in  his  own  cathedral-seat 
and  church,  and  therefore  ought  to  give  place  to 
no  man.  The  power  of  the  Cardinal  was  but  begged 
from  Rome,  and  appertained  but  to  his  own  person 
and  not  to  his  bishopric  ;  for  it  might  be  that  his 
successor  should  not  be  cardinal  ;  but  his  dignity 
was  annexed  with  his  office,  and  did  appertain  to 
all  that  ever  should  be  Bishops  of  Glasgow.  How- 
soever these  doubts  were  resolved  by  the  doctors 
of  divinity  of  both  the  prelates,  yet  the  decision 
was  as  ye  shall  hear.  Coming  forth  (or  going  in, 
all  is  one)  at  the  choir-door  of  Glasgow  Kirk,  begins 
striving  for  state  between  the  two  cross-bearers, 
so  that  from  glooming  they  come  to  shouldering  ; 
from  shouldering  they  go  to  buffets,  and  from  dry 
blows  to  fists  and  fisticuffs  ;  and  then,  for  charity's 
sake,  they  cry,  Dispersit,  dedit  pauperibus,  and  essay 
which  of  the  crosses  was  finest  metal,  which  staff 
was  strongest,  and  which  bearer  could  best  defend 
his  master's  preeminence  ;  and,  that  there  should 
be  no  superiority  on  that  behalf,  to  the  ground  go 


HIS  IDEAS  i2l 

both  the  crosses.  And  then  began  no  little  fray, 
but  yet  a  merry  game ;  for  rochets  were  rent, 
tippets  were  torn,  crowns  were  knapped,  and  side- 
gowns  might  have  been  seen  wantonly  wag  from 
one  wall  to  the  other.  Many  of  them  lacked 
beards,  and  that  was  the  more  pity,  and,  therefore, 
could  not  buckle  other  by  the  hair,1  as  bold  men 
would  have  done.  But  fie  on  the  jackmen,  that 
did  not  their  duty  ;  for,  had  the  one  part  of  them 
rencountered  the  other,  then  had  all  gone  right. 
But  the  sanctuary,  we  suppose,  saved  the  lives  of 
many.  How  merrily  that  ever  this  be  written,  it 
was  bitter  mirth  ~  to  the  Cardinal  and  his  court. 
It  was  more  than  irregularity  ;  yea,  it  might  well 
have  been  judged  lese  majestt  to  the  son  of  perdition, 
the  Pope's  own  person  ;  and  yet  the  other,  in  his 
folly  as  proud  as  a  peacock,  would  let  the  Cardinal 
know  that  he  was  a  bishop,  when  the  other  was 
but  Beaton,  before  he  got  Aberbrothock.  This 
enmity  was  judged  mortal  and  without  all  hope 
of  reconciliation."  3 

1  "  byrse." 

•  "bowrding." 

•  History,  i.  144  ff- 


CHAPTER    II. 

HIS    RELIGIOUS    CONVICTIONS 

HAVING    enumerated    the    works   of   the  Re- 
former, we   proceed  to  sketch  the  religious 
and  political  principles  embodied  in  them. 

Much  of  the  work  he  had  to  do  was  destructive. 
He  had  to  sweep  out  of  the  minds  of  men  a  whole 
world  of  superstitions,  and  out  of  the  country  masses 
of  superstitious  usages,  founded  on  these  false 
opinions.  This  part  of  his  task  Knox  performed 
with  zest,  employing  all  the  powers  of  sarcasm  and 
invective,  of  which  he  was  a  master,  in  turning  the 
old  Church  into  ridicule.  Of  ecclesiastical  lore  he 
cannot  be  claimed  to  have  possessed  very  much  ; 
but  his  stores  were  ample  to  overwhelm  the  feeble 
opponents  who  entered  the  field  against  him.  In 
his  very  first  sermon  at  St.  Andrews  he  boldly 
maintained  that  the  Pope  was  Antichrist.  "  And 
then  began  he  to  decipher  the  lives  of  diverse  popes 
and  the  lives  of  all  the  shavelings  for  the  most 


HIS  IDE  A3  ii3 

part  ;  their  doctrine  and  laws  he  plainly  proved 
to  repugn  directly  to  the  doctrine  and  laws  of  God 
the  Father  and  of  Christ  Jesus  His  Son."  And, 
in  a  petition  to  Parliament  in  1 560,  which  he  drew 
up  in  the  name  of  the  barons,  gentlemen,  burgesses, 
and  others,  professing  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  within 
the  realm  of  Scotland,  he  thus  sketched  in  brief 
but  pregnant  terms  the  evils  of  the  time : 

"  And,  first,  seeing  that  God,  of  His  great  mercy 
by  the  light  of  His  Word,  has  manifested  to  no  small 
number  of  this  realm,  that  the  doctrine  of  the 
Roman  Kirk,  received  by  the  said  clergy  and 
maintained  through  their  tyranny  by  fire  and  sword, 
contained  in  itself  many  pestiferous  errors,  which 
cannot  but  bring  damnation  to  the  souls  of  such 
as  therewith  shall  be  infected — such  as  are  the 
doctrine  of  transubstantiation  ;  of  the  adoration  of 
Christ's  body  under  the  form  of  bread  as  they  term 
it ;  of  the  merits  of  works,  and  justification  that 
they  allege  comes  thereby  ;  together  with  the  doctrine 
of  papistical  indulgences,  purgatory,  pilgrimage,  and 
praying  to  departed  saints  ;  which  are  all  either 
repugnant  to  the  plain  Scriptures  or  else  have  no 
ground  in  the  doctrine  of  our  Master  Jesus  Christ, 
His  prophets  nor  apostles — we  humbly,  therefore, 
crave  of  your  honours,  that  such  doctrine  and 
idolatry  as  by  God's  Word  are  condemned,  so  may 


124  JOHN  KNOX 

they  be  abolished  by  act  of  this  present  parliament, 
and  punishment  appointed  for  the  transgressors. 

"  Secondly,  seeing  that  the  sacraments  of  Jesus 
Christ  are  most  shamefully  abused  and  profaned 
by  that  Roman  harlot  and  her  sworn  vassals  ;  and 
also  because  the  true  discipline  of  the  ancient  Kirk 
is  now  utterly  extinguished  among  that  sect  :  for 
who  within  the  realm  are  more  corrupt  in  life  and 
manners  than  are  they  that  are  called  the  clergy, 
doing  all  abomination  without  fear  of  punishment  ? 
we  humbly,  therefore,  desire  your  Honours  to  find 
remedy  against  the  one  and  the  other. 

"  Thirdly,  because  that  Man  of  Sin  often  most 
falsely  claims  to  himself  the  titles  of  '  the  vicar  of 
Christ '  ;  '  the  successor  of  Peter  '  ;  '  the  head  of  the 
Kirk' ; '  that  he  cannot  err' ;  '  that  all  power  is  granted 
unto  him,'  etc.,  by  the  which  usurped  authority  he 
takes  upon  him  the  distribution  and  possession  of 
the  whole  patrimony  of  the  Kirk,  whereby  the  true 
ministers  of  the  Word  of  God  long  time  have  been 
utterly  neglected,  godly  learning  despised,  schools 
not  provided,  and  the  poor  not  only  defrauded  of 
their  portion,  but  also  tyrannously  oppressed  ;  we 
likewise  hereof  desire  remedy."  l 

The  superstition  of  the  age  culminated  in  the 
doctrine  and  practice  of  the  Mass,  against  which 
1  Works,  ii.  90. 


HIS  IDEAS  125 

accordingly  Knox  directed  the  whole  force  of  his 
artillery.  Early  in  his  career,  in  a  discourse  already 
mentioned,  in  the  presence  of  the  clergy  of  the 
North  of  England,  he  maintained  the  thesis  that 
the  Mass  is  idolatry  ;  and,  throughout  his  subsequent 
activity,  he  never  hesitated  to  apply  to  this  practice 
all  the  fulminations  against  idolatry  to  be  found 
in  the  Scriptures.  Thus,  in  the  preface  to  his 
report  of  his  disputation  with  the  Abbot  of 
Crossraguel,  he  paraphrases  the  ironical  description 
of  the  making  of  an  idol  found  in  the  prophecy 
of  Isaiah,  in  the  following  terms  : — 

"The  prophet,  in  description  of  their  vanities, 
saith,  '  The  earth  bringeth  forth  the  tree,  it  groweth 
by  moisture  and  natural  humidity,1  it  is  cut  down 
by  the  hand  of  the  hewer.  A  part  thereof  is  burnt, 
a  part  spent  in  uses  necessary  to  man,  another 
part  chosen  to  be  made  an  idol.  This  is  formed 
to  the  likeness  of  man  or  woman,  and  then  set 
up  and  worshipped  as  a  god.'  All  these  and  some 
more  shall  we  find  to  assist  and  concur  in  the 
making  of  this  great  god  of  bread.  The  wheat 
is  sown  and  nourished  in  the  earth  ;  rain,  dew  and 
heat  bring  it  to  maturity ;  the  reaper  or  shearer 
cutteth  it  down  ;  the  cart  or  sledge,  drawn  by 
horse  or  some  other  beast,  draweth  it  to  the  barn 
1  "wacknes." 


126  JOHN  KNOX 

or  to  the  barnyard  ;  the  tasker  or  the  foot  of  the 
ox  treadeth  it  out  ;  the  fan  delivereth  it  from  the 
chaff;  the  miller  and  the  millstones,  by  the  help 
of  wind  or  water,  make  it  to  be  meal ;  the  smith 
maketh  the  irons  that  give  to  that  god  his  length 
and  breadth,  likeness  and  form  ;  the  fine  substance 
of  that  god  is  neither  wood,  gold  nor  silver,  but 
water  and  meal  made  in  manner  of  a  bannock  1  ; 
and  then  must  the  workmen  take  good  heed  to 
their  hand,  for,  if  the  fire  be  too  hot,  that  god's 
skin  must  be  burnt ;  if  the  irons  be  ill  cleaned,2 
his  face  will  be  blacked  ;  if,  in  making  the  roundness, 
the  ring  be  broken,  then  must  another  of  his  fellows 
receive  that  honour  to  be  made  a  god  ;  and  the 
creased  or  cracked  miserable  cake,  that  once  was 
in  hope  to  be  made  a  god,  must  be  given  to  a 
baby  to  play  him  withal.  And  yet  is  not  all  the 
danger  past  ;  for,  if  there  be  not  an  anointed  priest 
to  play  his  part  aright,  all  the  former  artificers 
have  lost  their  labour,  for  without  him  that  god 
cannot  be  made  :  yea,  if  he  have  not  intention  to 
consecrate,  the  fashioned  god  remaineth  bread,  and 
so  the  blind  people  commit  idolatry. 

"These    are    the     artificers    and    workmen     that 
travail   in    making    of  this  god  :   I   think   as    many 

1  "  drammock." 

2  "  evil  dight." 


HIS  IDEAS  127 

in  number  as  the  prophet  reciteth  to  have  travailed 
in  the  making  of  the  idols  ;  and,  if  the  power 
of  both  shall  be  compared,  I  think  they  shall  be 
found  in  all  things  equal,  except  that  the  god  of 
bread  is  subject  unto  more  dangers  than  were  the 
idols  of  the  Gentiles.  Men  made  them  :  men  make 
it.  They  were  deaf  and  dumb  :  it  cannot  speak, 
hear  nor  see.  Briefly,  in  infirmity  they  wholly 
agree,  except  that,  as  I  have  said,  the  poor  god 
of  bread  is  most  miserable  of  all  other  idols  ;  for, 
according  to  their  matter  whereof  they  are  made, 
they  will  remain  without  corruption  many  years  ; 
but  within  one  year  that  god  will  putrify,  and  then 
he  must  be  burnt.  They  can  abide  the  vehemency 
of  the  wind,  frost,  rain  or  snow  ;  but  the  wind  will 
blow  that  god  to  the  sea,  the  rain  or  the  snow 
will  make  it  dough  again  ;  yea,  which  is  most  of 
all  to  be  feared,  that  god  is  a  prey,  if  he  be  not 
well  kept,  to  rats  and  mice  ;  for  they  will  desire 
no  better  dinner  than  white  round  gods  enough. 
But  oh  then,  what  becometh  of  Christ's  natural 
body?  By  miracle  it  flies  to  the  heaven  again, 
if  the  papists  teach  truly  ;  for,  how  soon  soever 
the  mouse  takes  hold,  so  soon  flieth  Christ  away 
and  letteth  her  gnaw  the  bread.  A  bold  and 
puissant  mouse,  but  a  feeble  and  miserable  god! 
Yet  would  I  ask  a  question :  Whether  hath  the 


128  JOHN  KNOX 

priest  or  the  mouse  greater  power  ?  By  his  words 
it  is  made  a  god  ;  by  her  teeth  it  ceaseth  to  be 
a  god  :  let  them  advise  and  then  answer. 

"  If  any  think  that  I  ought  not  to  mock  that  which 
the  world  so  long  hath  holden,  and  great  princes 
yet  hold  in  so  great  veneration,  I  answer,  that  not 
only  I,  but  also  all  godly  ought  not  only  to  mock 
but  also  to  curse  and  detest  whatsoever  is  not  God 
and  yet  usurpeth  the  name,  power  and  honour  of 
God  ;  and  also  that  we  ought  both  to  mock,  gainsay 
and  abhor  all  religion  obtruded  on  the  people  with- 
out assurance  of  God  and  His  Word,  having  neither 
respect  to  antiquity,  to  multitude,  to  authority, 
nor  estimation  of  them  that  maintain  the  same."  l 

The  language  of  Knox  in  controversy  sounds 
in  our  ears  rude  and  exaggerated  ;  as,  indeed,  the 
relics  of  bygone  polemics  are  usually  the  reverse 
of  admirable  to  posterity.  But  the  defence  of 
Luther  is  worth  recalling  :  "  Do  not  think,"  he 
wrote  to  Spalatin,  "that  the  Gospel  can  be  advanced 
without  tumult,  trouble  and  uproar.  You  cannot 
make  a  pen  of  a  sword ;  and  the  Word  of  God  is 
a  sword.  It  is  war,  overthrow,  trouble,  destruction, 
poison.  It  meets  the  children  of  Ephraim,  as  Amos 
says,  like  a  bear  on  the  road  or  like  a  lioness  in 
the  wood."  The  state  of  Europe  with  which  the 
1  Works,  v\.  171  ff. 


HIS  IDEAS  129 

Reformers  had  to  contend  is  sheltered  from  modern 
criticism  by  the  very  excess  of  its  own  corruption  ; 
and,  even  in  the  foregoing  extracts,  words  and  clauses 
have  had  to  be  suppressed.  Those  who  know 
best  what  the  moral  condition  of  Scotland  was 
before  the  Reformation,  as  this  is  revealed  in  her 
literature — for  example,  in  the  writings  of  the  poets 
Dunbar  and  Lindsay — are  the  most  likely  to  be 
thankful  to  Knox  for  the  changes  he  introduced 
into  the  country.  Had  he  done  nothing  more  than 
what  he  did  to  promote  decency,  he  would  have 
deserved  the  eternal  gratitude  of  Scotsmen. 

The  weapon  with  which  Knox  fought  this  battle 
was  the  Word  of  God.  This  was  the  fan  with 
which  he  "  throughly  purged  "  the  floor  of  the 
Church.  In  his  first  sermon  at  St  Andrews  he 
showed  that  the  Church  is  the  pillar  of  the  eternal 
verity  only  because  it  hears  the  voice  of  its  own 
pastor,  Jesus  Christ,  and  will  not  listen  to  a  stranger. 
And,  from  this  point  onwards  to  the  very  close 
of  his  career,  he  kept  on  repeating,  in  every  form 
in  which  it  could  be  expressed,  that  nothing  is 
lawful  in  the  Church  which  is  not  found  in  the 
Word  of  God.  This  may  be  called  his  master 
principle  ;  and  he  is  never  tired  of  repeating  it. 
Others  were  content  with  holding  that  nothing 

9 


130  JOHN  KNOX 

could  be  admitted  into  the  Church  which  was  for- 
bidden in  the  Bible  ;  but  Knox  went  much  farther, 
demanding  a  positive  sanction  out  of  Scripture  for 
everything  which  he  would  admit.  Not  only  did 
this  work  havoc  with  the  ecclesiastical  system  of 
Rome,  but  it  led  him  to  attribute  to  the  Church  of 
England  a  considerable  share  of  what  he  called  "the 
dregs  of  papistry."  "Man,"  he  remarks,  "always 
thinks  he  can  devise  a  more  perfect  honouring  of 
God  than  that  which  Himself  hath  commanded. 
Witness  the  Israelites  in  the  desert,  the  Ten  Tribes 
under  Jeroboam,  the  Pharisees  and  the  rest  of  the 
sects  in  Christ's  time;  and  the  papists  before  and 
in  our  own  time.  For,  let  any  of  them  be  demanded, 
How  know  ye  that  these  your  works,  rites  and  cere- 
monies please  God,  seeing  ye  have  not  His  com- 
mandment to  do  the  same  ?  straight  they  shall 
answer,  '  They  are  laudable,  they  are  honest  and 
decent,  they  have  good  significations,  they  pleased 
our  fathers,  and  the  most  part  of  the  world  has 
used  the  same.'  And  thus  into  idolatry  the  corrupt 
children  follow  the  footsteps  of  their  fathers." 

None  of  the  other  Reformers  went  so  far  in 
confining  the  arrangements  of  the  Church  to  what 
is  actually  prescribed  in  the  Scriptures.  Even 
Calvin  was  appealed  to,  on  one  occasion,  against 
Knox's  severity ;  and  the  Swiss  Reformer  wrote 


HIS  IDEAS  131 

to  him  :  "In  regard  to  ceremonies,  I  trust  that 
your  strictness,  although  it  may  displease  many, 
will  be  regulated  by  discretion.  We  should, 
indeed,  do  our  endeavour  that  the  Church  may 
be  purged  of  all  the  defilements  which  flowed  from 
error  and  superstition.  We  should  also  earnestly 
strive  that  the  mysteries  of  God  be  not  polluted 
by  absurd  and  unmeaning  mixtures.  With  this 
exception,  you  know  well  that  certain  things,  though 
not  positively  approved,  must  be  tolerated."  The 
Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  while  frequently 
laying  stress  on  the  principle  that  the  Bible  is 
the  sole  authority  in  the  Church,  yet  acknowledges 
that  "  there  are  some  circumstances  concerning  the 
worship  of  God  and  government  of  the  Church, 
common  to  human  actions  and  societies,  which  are 
to  be  ordered  by  the  light  of  nature  and  Christian 
prudence,  according  to  the  general  rules  of  the 
Word,  which  are  always  to  be  observed " ;  and 
this  could  be  converted  into  a  pretty  wide  door 
for  the  admission  of  innovations.  The  principle 
laid  down  by  Knox,  although  upon  the  whole  a 
wholesome  one,  is  not  easy  to  carry  through  ;  and 
it  may  be  doubted  if  even  he  was  invariably  true 
to  it.  Let  anyone  read  the  Order  of  the  General 
Fast,1  appointed  by  the  General  Assembly  in  1565, 
1  Works,  vi.  391. 


132  JOHN  KNOX 

and  he  will  probably  acknowledge  that,  in  spite 
of  the  appeals  in  it  to  Scripture,  the  ceremony  there 
so  minutely  prescribed  had  not  only  no  direct 
Scriptural  warrant,  but  was  contrary  to  the  spirit  of 
the  New  Testament. 

But  the  Bible  was  to  Knox  not  only  thus  a  law 
to  regulate  ceremonies  and  a  fan  with  which  to 
purge  out  the  excesses  of  the  Roman  superstition  : 
he  wielded  it,  besides,  as  a  tool  for  building  up  the 
spiritual  Jerusalem  ;  and  it  was  obviously  from  the 
heart  that  he  said,  "  I  delight  in  nothing  so  much 
as  in  the  simple  and  native  meaning  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, as  they  be  alleged  in  their  own  places  by  the 
Holy  Ghost." l  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that 
more  of  his  sermons  have  not  come  down  to  us  ; 
because  in  them  we  should  in  all  probability  have 
discovered  the  secret  of  the  sway  he  exerted  over 
his  countrymen,  and  especially  over  the  citizens  of 
Edinburgh,  who  loved  him  because,  like  a  good 
shepherd,  he  led  them  week  by  week  into  the  green 
pastures  and  beside  the  still  waters  of  the  Word 
of  God.  As  far  as  the  evidence  available  goes, 
he  seems  to  have  been  specially  a  preacher  of  the 
Old  Testament.  We  do  not  find  him,  like  Luther, 
wandering  often  among  the  flowery  and  fragrant 
meadows  of  the  Gospels,  expounding  the  miracles 
1  Works,  v.  262. 


HIS  IDEAS  133 

and  the  parables  of  our  Lord  ;  nor  does  he  display 
the  exegetical  precision  of  Calvin,  who  habitually 
makes  the  historical  and  grammatical  meaning  of 
a  text  the  basis  of  the  practical  application.  For 
this  Knox  has  not  patience.  He  hurries  quickly 
from  the  exposition  to  the  application  ;  the  text 
being  only  a  point  of  departure  for  an  expatiation 
of  his  own  ;  and  it  does  not  seem  to  matter 
much  which  text  he  chooses.  Still,  he  possesses  a 
marvellous  faculty  for  taking  a  book  of  the  Old 
Testament,  or  a  portion  of  the  Old  Testament 
history,  and  laying  it  alongside  of  the  contemporary 
history  of  his  own  country  in  such  a  way  as  to 
bring  out  comparisons  and  contrasts,  which  illumi- 
nate the  situation  and  reveal  the  path  of  duty.  He 
indulges  little  in  apologies  for  the  authority  of  the 
Bible.  The  business  of  his  life  was  to  break  down 
the  authority  of  Rome ;  but  those  against  whom 
his  polemic  was  directed  acknowledged  as  well  as 
he  the  authority  of  Scripture  ;  so  that  there  was  no 
need  to  waste  time  on  the  proof  of  that  which  was 
conceded.  It  was  later  in  the  history  of  the  Church 
before  theologians  found  it  necessary  to  buttress  the 
authority  of  the  Bible  with  elaborate  evidences. 
Even  for  Calvin,  a  much  more  systematic  thinker, 
the  necessity  for  proving  the  authority  of  the 
Scriptures  hardly  exists  ;  at  least,  he  is  satisfied  with 


134  JOHN  KNOX 

the  witness  of  the  Spirit  in  the  Scriptures  speaking 
to  the  spirit  in  the  minds  of  the  godly. 

There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  attach- 
ment of  Knox  to  the  Word  of  God  was  personal 
and  not  merely  professional.  In  the  account  of 
his  death-bed  it  comes  out  that  he  was  in  the  habit 
of  reading  the  Book  of  Psalms  once  a  month  ;  and 
there  breathes  a  heartfelt  sincerity  through  his  allu- 
sions to  the  Word  of  God  in  general.  Nowhere  is 
this  more  fully  expressed  than  in  a  letter  which  he 
left  behind  him  to  the  friends  of  reform  in  Scotland, 
when  closing  his  momentous  visit  in  1556  ;  and  this 
document  throws  so  much  light  on  the  primitive 
conditions  in  which  Christianity  then  existed  in 
Scotland  that  I  shall  quote  the  whole,  which  might 
almost  be  an  extract  from  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles : — 

"  A  most  wholesome  counsel  how  to  behave 
ourselves  in  the  midst  of  this  wicked  generation, 
touching  the  daily  exercise  of  God's  most  Holy 
and  Sacred  Word. 

"  The  Comfort  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  etc.,  for 
salutation. 

"  Not  so  much  to  instruct  you  as  to  leave  with 
you,  dearly  beloved  brethren,  some  testimony  of 
my  love,  I  have  thought  good  to  communicate  with 
you,  in  these  few  lines,  my  weak  counsel,  how  I 
would  ye  should  behave  yourselves,  in  the  midst 


///S  IDEAS  135 

of  this  wicked  generation,  touching  the  exercise 
of  God's  most  sacred  and  holy  Word,  without 
which  neither  shall  knowledge  increase,  godliness 
appear,  nor  fervency  continue  amongst  you.  For, 
as  the  Word  of  God  is  the  beginning  of  life  spiritual, 
without  which  all  flesh  is  dead  in  God's  presence, 
and  the  lantern  to  our  feet,  without  the  brightness 
whereof  all  the  posterity  of  Adam  doth  walk  in 
darkness,  and  as  it  is  the  foundation  of  faith, 
without  which  no  man  understandeth  the  goodwill 
of  God,  so  it  is  also  the  only  organ  and  instrument 
which  God  useth  to  strengthen  the  weak,  to  comfort 
the  afflicted,  to  reduce  to  mercy  by  repentance  such 
as  have  erred,  and,  finally,  to  preserve  and  keep 
the  very  life  of  the  soul  in  all  assaults  and  tempta- 
tions. And  thereof,  if  that  ye  desire  your  know- 
ledge to  be  increased,  your  faith  to  be  confirmed, 
your  conscience  to  be  quieted  and  comforted  or, 
finally,  your  soul  to  be  preserved  in  life,  let  your 
exercise  be  frequent  in  the  law  of  your  Lord  God. 
Despise  not  'that  precept  which  Moses,  who  by 
his  own  experience  had  learned  what  comfort  lieth 
hid  within  the  Word  of  God,  gave  to  the  Israelites 
in  these  words  :  '  These  words,  which  I  command 
thee  this  day,  shall  be  in  thy  heart :  and  thou  shalt 
exercise  thy  children  in  them.  Thou  shalt  talk 
of  them  when  thou  art  at  home  in  thy  house,  and 


136  JOHN  KNOX 

as  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and  when  thou  liest 
down,  and  when  thou  risest  up  ;  and  thou  shalt 
bind  them  for  a  sign  upon  thy  hand,  and  they  shall 
be  papers  of  remembrance  between  thine  eyes  ;  and 
thou  shalt  write  them  upon  the  posts  of  thy  house 
and  upon  thy  gates.'  And  Moses  in  another  place 
commandeth  them  to  '  remember  the  law  of  the 
Lord  God,  to  do  it,  that  it  may  be  well  with  them 
and  with  their  children  in  the  land  which  the  Lord 
their  God  should  give  them,'  meaning,  that,  like 
as  frequent  memory  and  repetition  of  God's  precepts 
is  the  means  whereby  the  fear  of  God,  which  is 
the  beginning  of  all  wisdom  and  felicity,  is  kept 
recent  in  mind,  so  is  negligence  and  oblivion  of 
God's  benefits  received  the  first  degree  of  defection 
from  God. 

"  Now,  if  the  Law,  which  by  reason  of  our  weakness 
can  work  nothing  but  wrath  and  anger,  was  so 
effectual  that,  remembered  and  rehearsed  of  purpose 
to  do  it,  it  brought  to  the  people  a  corporal 
benediction,  what  shall  we  say  that  the  glorious 
Gospel  of  Christ  Jesus  doth  work,  so  that  with 
reverence  it  be  entreated  ?  St.  Paul  calleth  it  the 
sweet  odour  of  life  to  those  that  shall  receive  life, 
borrowing  his  similitude  of  odoriferous  herbs  or 
precious  ointments,  whose  nature  is,  the  more  that 
they  be  touched  or  moved,  to  send  forth  their  odour 


HIS  IDEAS  I37 

more  pleasant  and  delectable.  Even  such,  dear 
brethren,  is  the  blessed  Evangel  of  our  Lord  Jesus ; 
for,  the  more  that  it  be  entreated,  the  more  com- 
fortable and  puissant  it  is  to  such  as  do  hear,  read 
or  exercise  the  same.  I  am  not  ignorant,  that,  as 
the  Israelites  loathed  the  manna,  because  that  every 
day  they  saw  and  ate  but  one  thing,  so  some  there 
be  now-a-days  (who  will  not  be  held  of  the  worst 
sort)  that,  after  once  reading  some  parcels  of  the 
Scriptures,  do  commit  themselves  altogether  to 
profane  authors  and  human  lectures,  because  that 
the  variety  of  matters  therein  contained  doth  bring 
with  it  daily  delectation,  where  contrariwise  within 
the  simple  Scriptures  of  God  the  perpetual 
repetition  of  one  thing  is  troublesome  and  weari- 
some. This  temptation,  I  confess,  may  enter  in 
God's  very  elect  for  a  time ;  but  impossible  it  is 
that  therein  they  continue  to  the  end  ;  for  God's 
election,  besides  other  evident  signs,  hath  this  ever 
joined  with  it,  that  God's  elect  are  called  from 
ignorance  (I  speak  of  those  that  are  come  to  the 
years  of  knowledge)  to  some  taste  and  feeling  of 
God's  mercy,  of  the  which  they  are  never  so 
satisfied  in  this  life  but  from  time  to  time  they 
hunger  and  they  thirst  to  eat  the  bread  that 
descended  from  heaven  and  to  drink  the  water  that 
springeth  to  life  everlasting;  which  they  cannot 


138  JOHN  KNOX 

do  but  by  the  means  of  faith,  and  faith  looketh 
ever  to  the  will  of  God  revealed  by  the  Word, 
so  that  faith  hath  both  her  beginning  and  con- 
tinuance by  the  Word  of  God.  And  so  I  say,  that 
impossible  it  is  that  God's  chosen  children  can 
despise  or  reject  the  word  of  their  salvation  of  any 
long  continuance,  neither  yet  loathe  it  to  the  end. 

"  Often  it  is  that  God's  elect  are  held  in  such 
bondage  and  thraldom,  that  they  cannot  have  the 
bread  of  life  broken  unto  them,  neither  yet  free 
liberty  to  exercise  themselves  in  God's  holy  Word  ; 
but  then  God's  dear  children  do  not  loathe,  but  most 
gladly  do  they  covet  the  food  of  their  souls  ;  then 
do  they  accuse  their  former  negligence,  then  lament 
they  the  miserable  affliction  of  their  brethren,  and 
then  cry  and  call  they  in  their  hearts  (and  openly 
where  they  dare)  for  free  passage  of  the  Gospel. 
This  hunger  and  thirst  doth  prove  the  life  of  their 
souls.  But,  if  such  men  as  having  liberty  to  read 
and  exercise  themselves  in  God's  holy  Scriptures 
yet  begin  to  weary,  because  from  time  to  time 
they  read  but  one  thing,  I  ask,  Why  weary  they 
not  also  every  day  to  eat  bread?  every  day  to 
drink  wine  ?  every  day  to  behold  the  brightness 
of  the  sun  ?  and  to  use  the  rest  of  God's  creatures, 
which  every  day  do  keep  their  own  substance, 
course  and  nature?  They  shall  answer,  I  trust, 


HIS  IDEAS  I39 

Because  such  creatures  have  a  strength,  as  oft  as 
they  are  used,  to  expel  hunger,  to  quench  thirst, 
to  restore  strength,  and  to  preserve  the  life.  O 
miserable  creatures!  who  dare  attribute  more 
power  and  strength  to  the  corruptible  creatures  in 
nourishing  and  preserving  the  mortal  carcase  than 
to  the  eternal  Word  of  God  in  nourishment  of  the 
soul,  which  is  immortal !  To  reason  with  their 
damnable  unthank fulness  at  this  present  it  is  not 
my  purpose :  but  to  you,  dear  brethren,  I  write 
my  knowledge  and  do  speak  my  conscience,  that, 
so  necessary  as  the  use  of  meat  and  drink  is  to 
the  preservation  of  life  corporal,  and  so  necessary 
as  the  heat  and  brightness  of  the  sun  is  to  the 
quickening  of  herbs,  and  to  expel  darkness,  so 
necessary  is  also  to  the  life  everlasting,  and  to  the 
illumination  and  light  of  the  soul,  the  perpetual 
meditation,  exercise  and  use  of  God's  holy  Word. 

"And  therefore,  dear  brethren,  if  that  ye  look 
for  a  life  to  come,  of  necessity  it  is  that  ye  exercise 
yourselves  in  the  book  of  the  Lord  your  God. 
Let  no  day  slip  over  without  some  comfort 
received  from  the  mouth  of  God.  Open  your  ears, 
and  He  will  speak  even  pleasant  things  to  your  heart. 
Close  not  your  eyes,  but  diligently  let  them  behold 
what  portion  of  substance  is  left  to  you  within 
your  Father's  testament.  Let  your  tongues  learn 


140  JOHN  KNOX 

to  praise  the  gracious  goodness  of  Him  whose 
mere  mercy  hath  called  you  from  darkness  to 
light,  and  from  death  to  life.  Neither  yet  may 
ye  do  this  so  quietly  that  ye  will  admit  no  wit- 
ness. No,  brethren,  ye  are  ordained  of  God  to  rule 
your  own  houses  in  His  true  fear  and  according  to 
His  Word.  Within  your  own  houses,  I  say,  in  some 
cases,  ye  are  bishops  and  kings  ;  your  wife,  children, 
servants  and  family  are  your  bishopric  and  charge ; 
of  you  it  shall  be  required  how  carefully  and 
diligently  ye  have  always  instructed  them  in 
God's  true  knowledge,  how  that  ye  have  studied 
in  them  to  plant  virtue  and  repress  vice.  And 
therefore,  I  say,  ye  must  make  them  partakers  in 
reading,  exhorting,  and  in  making  common  prayers, 
which  I  would  in  every  house  were  used  once  a 
day  at  least.  But  above  all  things,  dear  brethren, 
study  to  practise  in  life  that  which  the  Word  of 
God  commandeth,  and  then  be  assured  that 
ye  shall  never  hear  nor  read  the  same  without 
fruit.  And  thus  much  for  the  exercises  within 
your  house. 

"  Considering  that  St.  Paul  calleth  the  congregation 
'  the  body  of  Christ/  whereof  every  one  of  us  is 
a  member,  teaching  us  thereby  that  no  member 
is  of  sufficiency  to  sustain  and  feed  itself  without 
the  help  and  support  of  another,  I  think  it 


HfS  IDEAS  I4I 

necessary,  for  the  conference  of  Scriptures,  assemblies 
of  brethren  to  be  had.  The  order  therein  to  be 
observed  is  expressed  by  St.  Paul,  and  therefore 
need  not  I  to  use  many  words  in  that  behalf ;  only 
expressing  my  wish,  that,  when  ye  convene  or  come 
together — which  I  would  were  once  a  week — that 
your  beginning  should  be  from  confession  of  your 
offences  and  invocation  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  to  assist  you  in  all  your  godly  enterprises. 
And  then  let  some  place  of  Scripture  be  plainly 
and  distinctly  read,  so  much  as  shall  be  thought 
sufficient  for  one  day  or  time ;  which  ended,  if 
any  brother  have  exhortation,  question  or  doubt, 
let  him  not  fear  to  speak  or  move  the  same,  so  that 
he  do  it  with  moderation,  either  to  edify  or  to  be 
edified.  And  hereof  I  doubt  not  great  profit  shall 
shortly  ensue  ;  for,  first,  by  hearing,  reading  and 
conferring  the  Scriptures  in  the  assembly,  the  whole 
body  of  the  Scriptures  of  God  shall  become  familiar, 
the  judgments  and  spirits  of  men  shall  be  tried,  their 
patience  and  modesty  shall  be  known,  and,  finally, 
their  gifts  and  utterance  shall  appear.  Multiplication 
of  words,  prolix  interpretations,  and  wilfulness  in 
reasoning  are  to  be  avoided  at  all  times  and 
in  all  places,  but  chiefly  in  the  congregation,  where 
nothing  ought  to  be  respected  except  the  glory 
of  God  and  comfort  or  edification  of  brethren. 


142  JOHN  KNOX 

"  If  anything  occur  within  the  text,  or  else  arise 
in  reasoning,  which  your  judgments  cannot  resolve 
or  your  capacities  apprehend,  let  the  same  be  noted 
and  put  in  writing,  before  ye  dismiss  the  congrega- 
tion, that,  when  God  shall  offer  unto  you  any 
interpreter,  your  doubts,  being  noted  and  known, 
may  have  the  more  expedient  resolution  ;  or  else 
that,  when  ye  shall  have  occasion  to  write  to  such 
as  with  whom  ye  would  communicate  your  judg- 
ments, your  letters  may  signify  and  declare  your 
unceasing  desire  that  ye  have  of  God  and  of  His 
true  religion  ;  and  they,  I  doubt  not,  according 
to  their  talents,  will  endeavour  and  bestow  their 
faithful  labours  to  satisfy  your  godly  petitions.  Of 
myself  I  will  speak  as  I  think  :  I  will  more  gladly 
spend  fifteen  hours  in  communicating  my  judgment 
with  you,  in  explaining  as  God  pleases  to  open 
to  me  any  place  of  Scripture,  than  half  an  hour 
in  any  other  matter. 

"  Further,  I  would,  in  reading  the  Scripture  ye 
should  join  some  books  of  the  Old  and  some  of 
the  New  Testament  together,  as  Genesis  and  one  of 
the  Evangelists,  Exodus  with  another,  and  so  forth ; 
ever  ending  such  books  as  ye  begin  (as  the  time 
will  suffer),  for  it  will  greatly  comfort  you  to  hear 
that  harmony  and  well-tuned  song  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  speaking  to  our  fathers  from  the  beginning. 


ff/S  IDEAS  U3 

It  shall  confirm  you  in  these  dangerous  and  perilous 
days  to  behold  the  face  of  Christ's  loving  Spouse 
and  Church,  from  Abel  to  Himself  and  from 
Himself  to  this  day,  in  all  ages  to  be  one.  Be 
frequent  in  the  Prophets  and  in  the  Epistles  of 
St.  Paul,  for  the  multitude  of  matters,  most  comfort- 
able therein  contained,  requireth  exercise  and  good 
memory.  Like  as  your  assemblies  ought  to  begin 
with  confession  and  invocation  of  God's  Holy  Spirit, 
so  would  I  that  they  were  finished  with  thanks- 
giving and  common  prayers  for  princes,  rulers  and 
magistrates  ;  for  the  liberty  and  free  passage  of 
Christ's  Evangel  ;  for  the  comfort  and  deliverance 
of  our  afflicted  brethren  in  all  places  now  persecuted, 
but  most  cruelly  within  the  realms  of  France  and 
England  ;  and  for  such  other  things  as  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  shall  teach  unto  you  to  be 
profitable  either  to  yourselves  or  to  your  brethren, 
wheresover  they  be. 

"  If  thus  (or  better)  I  shall  hear  that  ye  exercise 
yourselves,  dear  brethren,  then  will  I  praise  God 
for  your  great  obedience,  as  for  them  that  have 
not  only  received  the  Word  of  grace  with  gladness 
but  that  also,  with  care  and  diligence,  do  keep 
the  same  as  a  treasure  and  jewel  most  precious. 
And,  because  that  I  cannot  suspect  that  ye  will 
do  the  contrary  at  this  present,  I  will  use  no 


144  JOHN  KNOX 

threatenings  ;  for  my  good  hope  is,  that  ye  shall 
walk  as  the  sons  of  light  in  the  midst  of  this 
wicked  generation  ;  that  ye  shall  be  as  stars  in  the 
night  season,  who  yet  are  not  changed  into  darkness ; 
that  ye  shall  be  as  wheat  among  the  cockle,  and 
yet  that  ye  shall  not  change  your  nature,  which 
ye  have  received  by  grace  through  the  fellowship 
and  participation  which  we  have  with  the  Lord 
Jesus  in  His  body  and  blood ;  and,  finally,  that 
ye  shall  be  of  the  number  of  the  prudent  virgins, 
daily  renewing  your  lamps  with  oil,  as  they  that 
patiently  do  abide  the  glorious  apparition  and 
coming  of  the  Lord  Jesus  ;  whose  omnipotent  Spirit 
rule  and  instruct,  illuminate  and  comfort  your  hearts 
and  minds  in  all  assaults  now  and  ever.  Amen. 

"  The  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  rest  with  you. 

"  Remember  my  weakness  in  your  daily  prayers. 
The  ;th  of  July,   1556. 

"  Your  Brother  unfeigned, 

"  JOHN  KNOX."  l 

While  the  authority  of  the  Word  of  God  is  one 
of  the  pillars  of  the  Reformation,  it  is  usually  stated 
that  the  doctrine  of  Justification  by  Faith  is  the 
other.  And  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  Knox's  very 
first  publication  was  a  treatise  on  this  important 
1  Works,  iv.  1 29  if. 


If/S  IDEAS  145 

subject,  penned,  however,  not  by  himself,  but  by 
a  fellow-exile,  during  the  period  of  his  imprisonment 
in  France.  Knox  appears  to  consider  it  a  com- 
mendation of  this  production  that  it  came  from  the 
pen  of  "no  speculative  theologue,"  but  from  that 
of  a  simple  layman  ;  and  at  any  rate  the  clearness 
and  force  of  the  exposition  are  now  interesting 
evidences  of  the  grip  with  which  at  that  time  this 
doctrine  had  laid  hold  of  the  general  mind.  At 
the  request  of  the  author,  Henry  Balnaves,  Knox 
digested  it  into  chapters,  to  which  he  appended 
summaries,  together  with  a  table  of  contents.  This 
was  a  friendly  action,  thoroughly  well  done ;  al- 
though even  these  additions  of  Knox  fail  to  give 
the  work  much  distinction  ;  and  we  cannot  help 
regretting  that  he  did  not  write  on  the  subject 
himself. 

One  qualification  for  so  doing  he  possessed  in  a 
remarkable  degree.  It  is  the  poignant  and  in- 
tolerable sense  of  sin  that  makes  the  soul  cling 
to  the  cross  of  Christ.  It  was  by  this  experience 
that  both  SL  Paul  and  Luther  were  prepared  for 
appreciating  the  righteousness  of  God,  after  they 
had  realised  that  their  guilt  was  too  great  to  be 
atoned-for  by  anything  that  they  could  do  them- 
selves. The  conscience  of  Knox  was  preter- 
naturally  tender.  How  this  peculiarity  was  originally 

10 


146  JOHN  KNOX 

produced  in  him  we  do  not  know  ;  but  the  pro- 
bability is,  that  it  was  due  to  experiences  of 
conviction  of  sin  and  of  hopeless  struggle  after 
righteousness,  similar  to  those  of  St.  Paul  and 
Luther,  belonging  to  the  early  period  of  which 
we  possess  no  record  ;  and  in  his  subsequent  life 
it  can  have  been  developed  only  by  a  careful  walk 
with  God  and  a  constant  comparison  of  his  own 
conduct  and  character  with  the  perfect  model  of 
the  Bible. 

Often  he  accuses  himself,  in  most  touching  terms, 
of  shortcomings  in  the  discharge  of  his  ministry, 
and  even  of  fear  in  the  face  of  danger — -the  last 
thing  which  any  other  person  would  have  thought 
of  laying  to  his  charge.  Here  is  a  searching  review 
of  his  ministry  in  England,  which  will  be  read  by 
everyone  engaged  in  work  of  the  same  kind  with 
sympathy  : — 

"  The  ministers  who  were  the  distributers  of  this 
bread,  the  true  Word  of  God,  wherewith  the 
multitude  within  England  was  fed,  lacked  not  their 
offences,  which  also  moved  God  to  send  us  to  the 
sea.  And,  because  the  offences  of  no  man  are  so 
manifest  unto  me  as  are  mine  own,  only  of  myself 
I  will  be  the  accuser. 

"  It  is  not  unknown  unto  many,  that  I  (the  most 
wretched)  was  jone  of  that  number  whom  God 


HIS  IDEAS  I47 

appointed  tc  receive  that  bread,  as  it  was  broken 
by  Christ  Jesus,  to  distribute  and  give  the  same  to 
such  as  He  had  called  to  this  banquet,  in  that  part 
of  His  table  where  He  appointed  me  to  serve.  It 
is  not  in  my  knowledge  nor  judgment  to  define  nor 
determine  what  portion  or  quantity  every  man 
received  of  this  bread,  neither  yet  how  that  which 
they  received  agreed  with  their  stomachs.  But  of 
this  I  am  assured,  that  the  benediction  of  Christ 
Jesus  so  multiplied  the  portion  that  I  received  of 
His  hands,  that  during  that  banquet  (this  I  write 
to  the  praise  of  His  name  and  to  the  accusation 
of  mine  own  unthankfulness)  the  bread  never  failed 
when  the  hungry  soul  craved  or  cried  for  food ;  and 
at  the  end  of  the  banquet,  mine  own  conscience 
beareth  witness,  that  my  hands  gathered  up  the 
crumbs  that  were  left  in  such  abundance,  that  my 
basket  was  full  among  the  rest. 

"  To  be  plain,  mine  own  conscience  beareth 
record  to  myself,  how  small  was  my  learning,  and 
how  weak  I  was  of  judgment,  when  Christ  Jesus 
called  me  to  be  His  steward  ;  and  how  mightily, 
day  by  day  and  time  by  time,  He  multiplied  His 
graces  with  me,  if  I  should  conceal,  I  were  most 
wicked  and  unthankful. 

"  But  alas !  how  blinded  was  my  heart,  and  how 
little  I  did  consider  the  dignity  of  that  office,  and 


148  JOHN  KNOX 

the  power  of  God  that  then  multiplied  and  blessed 
the  bread  which  the  people  received  of  my  hands, 
this  day  mine  own  conscience  beareth  witness  to 
myself.  God  I  take  to  record  in  my  conscience, 
that  I  delivered  the  same  bread  that  I  received  of 
Christ's  hands,  and  that  I  mixed  no  poison  with 
the  same  ;  that  is,  I  taught  Christ's  Gospel  without 
any  mixture  of  men's  dreams,  devices  or  fantasies. 
But  alas !  I  did  not  with  such  fervency,  with  such 
indifferency,  and  with  such  diligence,  as  this  day 
I  know  my  duty  was  to  have  done. 

"  Some  complained  in  those  days,  that  the  preachers 
were  indiscreet  persons  ;  yea,  and  some  called  them 
railers,  and  worse,  because  they  spake  against  the 
manifest  iniquity  of  men,  and  especially  of  those 
that  were  then  placed  in  authority  as  well  in  the 
court  as  in  other  offices  universally  throughout  the 
realm,  both  in  cities,  towns  and  villages.  And 
among  other,  peradventure,  my  rude  plainness  dis- 
pleased some,  who  did  complain  that  rashly  I 
did  speak  of  men's  faults  ;  so  that  all  men  might 
know  and  perceive  of  whom  I  meant.  But  alas  ! 
this  day  my  conscience  accuseth  me,  that  I  spake 
not  so  plainly  as  my  duty  was  to  have  done ; 
for  I  ought  to  have  said  to  the  wicked  man  expressly 
by  his  name,  '  Thou  shalt  die  the  death.'  For 
I  find  Jeremy  the  prophet  to  have  done  so  to 


fffS  IDEAS  ,49 

Pashur  the  high  priest  and  to  Zedekiah  the  king  ; 
and  not  only  him,  but  also  Elijah,  Elisha,  Micah, 
Amos,  Daniel,  Christ  Jesus  Himself,  and  after  Him 
His  Apostles,  expressly  to  have  named  the  blood- 
thirsty tyrants,  abominable  idolaters  and  dissembling 
hypocrites  of  their  days.  If  that  we  the  preachers 
within  the  realm  of  England  were  appointed  by 
God  to  be  the  salt  of  the  earth,  as  His  other 
messengers  were  before  us,  alas !  why  held  we  back 
the  salt  where  manifest  corruption  did  appear  ?  (I 
accuse  none  but  myself.)  The  blind  love  that  I 
did  bear  to  this  my  wicked  carcase  was  the  chief 
cause  that  I  was  not  fervent  and  faithful  enough 
in  that  behalf;  for  I  had  no  will  to  provoke  the 
hatred  of  all  men  against  me,  and  therefore  so 
touched  I  the  vices  of  men  in  the  presence  of  the 
greatest,  that  they  might  see  themselves  to  be 
offenders.  I  dare  not  say  that  I  was  the  greatest 
flatterer,  but  yet,  nevertheless,  I  would  not  be  seen 
to  proclaim  manifest  war  against  the  manifest 
wicked  :  whereof  unfeignedly  I  ask  my  God  mercy. 
"  As  I  was  not  so  fervent  in  rebuking  manifest 
iniquity  as  it  became  me  to  have  been,  so  was  I 
not  so  indifferent l  a  feeder  as  is  required  of  Christ's 
steward.  For  in  preaching  Christ's  Gospel,  albeit 
mine  eye  (as  knoweth  God)  was  not  much  upon 
1  Without  respect  of  persons. 


i$o  JOHN  KNOX 

worldly  promotion,  yet  the  love  of  friends  and 
carnal  affection  of  some  men  with  whom  I  was 
most  familiar  allured  me  to  make  more  residence 
in  one  place  than  in  another,  having  more  respect 
to  the  pleasure  of  a  few  than  to  the  necessity  of 
many.  That  day  I  thought  I  had  not  sinned,  if 
I  had  not  been  idle  ;  but  this  day  I  know  it  was 
my  duty  to  have  had  consideration  how  long  I  had 
remained  in  one  place,  and  how  many  hungry  souls 
were  in  other  places  to  whom,  alas !  none  took 
pain  to  break  and  distribute  the  bread  of  life. 

"  Moreover,  remaining  in  one  place,  I  was  not 
so  diligent  as  mine  office  required  ;  but  some  time, 
by  counsel  of  carnal  friends,  I  spared  the  body  ; 
some  time  I  spent  in  worldly  business  of  particular 
friends ;  and  some  time  in  taking  recreation  and 
pastime  by  exercise  of  the  body. 

"  And,  albeit  men  may  judge  these  to  be  light 
and  small  offences,  yet  I  know  and  confess,  that, 
unless  pardon  should  to  me  be  granted  in  Christ's 
blood,  every  one  of  these  three  offences  aforenamed — 
that  is  to  say,  the  lack  of  fervency  in  reproving  sin, 
the  lack  of  indifferency  in  feeding  those  that  were 
hungry,  and  the  lack  of  diligence  in  the  execution 
of  mine  office — deserved  damnation. 

"  And,  beside  these,  I  was  assaulted,  yea,  infected 
and  corrupted  with  more  gross  sins  ;  that  is,  my 


HIS  IDEAS  I5i 

wicked  nature  desired  the  favours,  the  estimation 
and  praise  of  men  ;  against  which,  albeit  that  some- 
time the  Spirit  of  God  did  move  me  to  fight,  and 
earnestly  did  stir  me  (God  knoweth  I  lie  not)  to 
sob  and  lament  for  those  imperfections,  yet  never 
ceased  they  to  trouble  me,  when  any  occasion  was 
offered.  And  so  privily  and  craftily  did  they  enter 
into  my  breast,  that  I  could  not  perceive  myself 
to  be  wounded,  till  vainglory  had  almost  got  the 
upperhand. 

"  O  Lord  !  be  merciful  to  my  great  offence,  and 
deal  not  with  me  according  to  my  great  iniquity, 
but,  according  to  the  multitude  of  Thy  mercies, 
remove  from  me  the  burden  of  my  sin  ;  for,  of 
purpose  and  mind  to  have  avoided  the  vain  dis- 
pleasure of  man,  I  spared  little  to  offend  Thy  Godly 
Majesty."1 

But  the  most  pathetic  of  all  such  utterances  is 
contained  in  the  last  of  his  publications,  his  Answer 
to  a  Letter  of  James  Tyrie,  a  Scottish  Jesuit,  written 
the  year  in  which  he  died.  It  appears,  indeed,  to 
have  been  penned  at  an  earlier  date;  but  we 
cannot  do  wrong  in  looking  upon  it  as  expressing 
the  habitual  attitude  of  his  spirit  to  God  all 
through  his  life  : — 

"  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit,  and  put  an  end 
1  Works,  iii.  268  ff. 


t52  JOHN 

at  Thy  good  pleasure  to  this  my  miserable  life  ; 
for  justice  and  truth  are  not  to  be  found  among 
the  sons  of  men. 

"JOHN  KNOX  with  deliberate  mind  to  his  God. 

"  Be  merciful  unto  me,  O  Lord,  and  call  not 
into  judgment  my  manifold  sins,  and  chiefly  those 
of  which  the  world  is  not  able  to  accuse  me.  In 
youth,  mid-age,  and  now  after  many  battles,  I 
find  nothing  in  me  but  vanity  and  corruption. 
For  in  quietness  I  am  negligent,  in  trouble  im- 
patient, tending  to  desperation  ;  and  in  the  mean 
state  I  am  so  carried  away  with  vain  fantasies 
that,  alas !  O  Lord,  they  withdraw  me  from  the 
presence  of  Thy  Majesty.  Pride  and  ambition 
assault  me  on  the  one  part,  covetousness  and  malice 
trouble  me  on  the  other ;  briefly,  O  Lord,  the 
affections  of  the  flesh  do  almost  suppress  the 
operation  of  Thy  Spirit  I  take  Thee,  O  Lord, 
who  only  knowest  the  secrets  of  hearts,  to  record, 
that  in  none  of  the  foresaid  I  do  delight  ;  but 
that  with  them  am  I  troubled,  and  that  sore  against 
the  desire  of  my  inward  man,  which  sobs  for  my 
corruption,  and  would  repose  in  Thy  mercy  alone ; 
to  the  which  I  claim,  and  that  in  the  promise 
that  Thou  hast  made  to  all  penitent  sinners,  of 
whose  number  I  profess  myself  to  be  one,  in  the 
obedience  and  death  of  my  only  Saviour,  our  Lord 


fifS  WE  AS  153 

Jesus  Christ  ;  in  whom  by  Thy  mere  grace  I 
doubt  not  myself  to  be  elected  to  eternal  salvation, 
whereof  Thou  hast  given  unto  me,  O  Lord,  most 
wretched  and  unthankful  creature,  most  assured 
signs.  For,  being  drowned  in  ignorance,  Thou  hast 
given  unto  me  knowledge  above  the  common  sort 
of  my  brethren  ;  my  tongue  hast  Thou  used  to 
set  forth  Thy  glory,  to  oppugn  idolatry,  error  and 
false  doctrine.  Thou  hast  compelled  me  to  forespeak 
as  well  deliverance  to  the  afflicted  as  destruction 
to  certain  inobedient ;  the  performance  whereof  not 
I  alone,  but  the  very  blind  world  has  already  seen. 
But  above  all,  O  Lord,  Thou,  by  the  power  of  Thy 
Holy  Spirit,  hast  sealed  into  my  heart  remission 
of  sins,  which  I  acknowledge  and  confess  myself 
to  have  received  by  the  precious  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ  once  shed  ;  by  whose  perfect  obedience,  I 
am  assured,  my  manifold  rebellions  are  defaced,  my 
grievous  sins  purged,  and  my  soul  made  the 
tabernacle  of  Thy  Godly  Majesty  ;  Thou,  O  Father 
of  mercies,  Thy  Son  our  Lord  Jesus  my  only  Saviour, 
Mediator  and  Advocate,  and  Thy  Holy  Spirit,  re- 
maining in  the  same  by  true  faith ;  which  is  the 
only  victory  that  overcometh  the  world. 

"To  Thee,  therefore,  O  Lord,  I  commend  my 
spirit ;  for  I  thirst  to  be  resolved  from  this  body 
of  sin,  and  am  assured  that  I  shall  rise  again  in 


154  JOHN  KNOX 

glory,  howsoever  it  be  that  the  wicked  for  a  time 
shall  tread  me  and  others  Thy  servants  under  their 
feet.  Be  merciful,  O  Lord,  unto  the  Kirk  within 
this  realm  ;  continue  with  it  the  light  of  Thy 
Evangel  ;  augment  the  number  of  true  preachers  ; 
and  let  Thy  merciful  providence  look  upon  my 
desolate  bedfellow,  the  fruitof  her  bosom,  and  my 
two  dear  children,  Nathaniel  and  Eleazar.  Now, 
Lord,  put  end  to  my  miseries  !  " ] 

In  this  extract  it  will  be  noted  how,  in  spite 
the  depth  and  solemnity  of  the  confession  of  sin, 
the  author  nevertheless  attains  to  the  full  assurance 
of  forgiveness  ;  and  this  truly  evangelical  note  rings 
out  ever  and  anon  in  his  writings,  as  it  did  no  doubt 
in  his  preaching.  Yet  justification  by  faith  does  not 
sing  and  dance  in  the  very  blood  of  Knox  as  it 
did  in  Luther's.  In  the  German  Reformer's  company 
we  breathe  an  atmosphere  of  abounding  freedom 
and  spiritual  joy,  to  which  the  Scottish  one  only 
occasionally  attains ;  and  what  held  the  latter  down 
was  a  conscience  imperfectly  emancipated. 

The  part  of  Balnaves'  book  which  will  probably 
be  most  relished  by  the  modern  reader  is  the  account 
it  gives  of  the  life  of  justification,  comprising  plain 
and  sensible  rules  for  the  walk  and  conversation  of  a 
Christian  man.  In  the  debt  which  the  world  owes  to 
1  Works,  vi.  483. 


HIS  IDEAS  155 

the  heroes  of  the  religious  revolution  of  the  sixteenth 
century  there  is  no  item  which  would  be  paid  with 
more  gratitude,  if  it  were  thoroughly  understood, 
than  the  new  conception  of  good  works  with  which 
they  familiarised  the  mind  of  Europe.  In  preceding 
centuries  good  works  had  come  to  be  understood 
more  and  more  in  an  artificial  sense.  To  go  on 
pilgrimage,  to  endow  a  religious  house,  to  become 
a  monk,  to  fast  or  otherwise  torture  the  body — 
these  and  the  like  were  good  works  ;  and  the  very 
name  "religious"  was  restricted,  as  it  still  is  where 
the  Romish  system  prevails,  to  persons  who  had 
left  the  world,  with  its  every-day  duties,  and  given 
themselves  up  to  a  life  of  contemplation.  But 
Balnaves  shows  with  quiet  force  that  the  good  works 
with  which  God  is  well  pleased  are  such  as  these  : 
to  be  a  good  father,  a  good  son,  a  good  citizen,  to 
be  diligent  in  business,  and  to  be  in  all  respects 
a  good  specimen  of  manhood.  This  alteration  of 
the  point  of  view  may  be  said  to  lie  at  the  bottom 
of  all  the  progress  of  the  modern  world.  It  is 
a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  Reformation  was 
mainly  occupied  with  theological  doctrines :  it  was 
even  more  a  revolution  in  morals  ;  and  Knox  is 
excelled  by  none  in  honest  zeal  to  enlighten  the 
public  conscience.  "  It  is  not  enough,"  he  says,  "  to 
justify  us  before  God  that  civil  laws  cannot  accuse 


tS<5  JOtiN  KNOX 

us.  Nay,  brethren,  the  eye  of  our  God  pierceth 
deeper  than  man's  law  can  stretch.  The  law  of 
man  cannot  convict  the  earl,  the  lord,  the  baron 
or  gentleman  for  oppressing  the  poor  labourers  of 
the  ground  ;  for  his  defence  is  ready,  '  I  may  do 
with  my  own  as  best  pleaseth  me. '  The  merchant 
is  just  enough  in  his  own  conceit,  if  before  men 
he  cannot  be  convicted  of  theft.  The  artificer  and 
craftsman  thinketh  himself  free  before  God,  albeit 
that  he  neither  work  sufficient  stuff  nor  yet  sell  for 
reasonable  price.  '  The  world  is  evil,'  saith  he,  '  and 
how  can  men  live  if  they  do  not  as  others  do  ?  '  And 
thus  doth  every  man  lean  on  the  iniquity  of  another, 
and  thinketh  himself  sufficiently  excused  when  that 
he  meeteth  craft  with  craft,  and  repulseth  back 
violence  either  with  deceit  or  else  with  open  injury. 
Let  us  be  assured,  dear  brethren,  that  these  be  the 
sins  which  heretofore  have  provoked  God  not  only 
to  plague,  but  also  to  destroy  and  utterly  overthrow 
strong  realms  and  flourishing  commonwealths."  l 


It  .was  by  the  lowly  pathway  of  the  conviction 

of  sin  that  Knox,  like  the  other  Reformers,  reached 

the    position  that    salvation    must    come    from    the 

mercy   of  God,  and   not  from  his  own  works  ;  but 

1  Works,  vi.  413. 


HIS  IDEAS  157 

there  was  also  another  path — a  more  imperial 
one — by  which,  again  in  common  with  the  other 
Reformers,  he  came  to  the  same  point.  This  was 
the  belief  in  Election.  All  the  Reformers  of  the 
sixteenth  century  were  diligent  students  of  Augustine, 
from  whom  they  learned  more  than  from  any  other 
source,  with  the  exception  of  the  Bible.  From  him 
they  imbibed  their  faith  in  the  doctrine  of  predestina- 
tion. But,  indeed,  the  predestinarian  system  suits 
well  the  exigencies  of  a  time  of  change  and  struggle  ; 
because  it  supports  the  protagonists  with  a  sense 
that  they  are  the  instruments  of  a  divine  purpose, 
and  that  they  are  immortal  till  their  work  is  done. 
It  falls  in,  besides,  with  the  experience  of  men  who 
have  been  awakened  to  a  sense  of  true  religion  in  a 
catastrophic  manner,  as  had  been  the  case  with  the 
Reformers.  Such  men  are  intensely  conscious  of 
an  immediate  divine  efficiency  in  their  conversion  ; 
they  think  with  amazement  of  the  grace  which  has 
made  the  difference  between  their  former  and  their 
present  selves ;  and  with  equal  awe  they  think  of 
the  difference  between  themselves  and  the  rest  of 
the  world.  It  seems  to  them  that  a  special  act 
of  divine  discrimination  has  lifted  them  up  out  of 
the  horrible  pit  and  the  miry  clay. 

To   persons  theologizing  in    this  mood  salvation 
seems  all  of  God  from  first  to  last.     He  has  planned 


158  JOHN  KNOX 

it  from  eternity ;  He  has  worked  it  out  in  the 
incarnation  and  passion  of  His  Son  and  in  the 
institution  and  the  ordinances  of  the  Church  ;  and 
He  will  see  to  it  that  in  the  receivers  also  all  the 
experiences  shall  come  to  pass  which  are  necessary 
to  ensure  that  His  own  redeeming  purpose  is  not 
in  vain.  Thus  arises  a  system  like  Calvinism,  in 
which  the  sovereign  but  glorious  and  loving  will 
of  God  holds  sway  from  eternity  to  eternity,  and 
the  drama  of  creation  ends  in  the  redemption  of 
a  multitude  which  no  man  can  number.  But  there 
is  a  cooler  religious  mood  in  which  facts  and  truths 
come  into  prominence  of  which  this  fervid  theology 
takes  little  reckoning.  To  the  latter  it  matters  little 
what  difference  there  is  between  man  and  man  ; 
for  all  are  condemned  and  all  may  equally  be  saved  ; 
but  undoubtedly  there  are  great  differences  between 
one  sinner  and  another,  and  for  certain  purposes 
even  in  religion  it  is  essential  to  bear  this  in  mind. 
To  a  system  like  Calvinism  the  difference  between 
one  saint  and  another  appears  of  very  minor 
importance ;  indeed,  the  better  saint  of  the  two 
may  be  the  more  conscious  of  his  own  shortcomings, 
and  in  the  end  both  will  equally  be  saved.  But, 
from  other  points  of  view,  the  differences  between 
those  who  bear  respectively  thirty,  forty  and  an 
hundredfold  are  enormous,  and  to  overlook  these 


HIS  IDEAS  IS9 

is  to  lose  some  of  the  most  pathetic  motives  of 
morality.  In  this  cooler  atmosphere  a  system  like 
Arminianism  has  its  birth  ;  and  undoubtedly  such 
a  system  has  its  own  share  of  truth ;  although 
Calvinism  is  the  purer  expression  of  the  religious 
sentiment  at  its  warmest — when  it  is  lost  in  God 
and  acknowledges  that  He  must  be  all  in  all. 

It  was  on  this  subject  that  Knox  wrote  his  longest 
theological  work — An  Answer  to  the  Cavillations  of 
an  Adversary  respecting  the  Doctrine  of  Predestination. 
The  adversary  was  the  author  of  a  book  entitled 
Careless  by  Necessity  ;  but  no  copy  of  this  work 
has  been  found,  and  the  author  is  only  doubtfully 
identified  with  a  certain  Robert  Cooke,  known 
to  have  been  in  those  days  a  disseminator  of  the 
opinions  here  assailed.  These  included  not  only 
anti-Calvinism,  but  perfectionism,  toleration,  and 
the  miscellaneous  heresies  embraced  within  the 
comprehensive  name  of  Anabaptism.  Knox  had 
known  the  author  at  an  earlier  stage  of  his  career, 
when  he  was  a  person  of  promise  ;  and  he  fre- 
quently bewails  his  backsliding,  once  going  so  far 
as  to  say  that  he  would  be  willing  to  give  his  own 
soul  for  his  reclamation.  It  would  appear  that  he 
was  a  person  of  indifferent  learning ;  and  Knox 
occasionally  talks  down  to  him  from  the  platform 
of  a  thoroughly  educated  man,  acquainted  with  the 


160  JOHN  KNOX 

tongues ;  but,  for  all  that,  he  must  have  been 
a  thinker  of  no  little  acuteness  ;  his  book  had 
obviously  created  something  of  a  panic  in  the  circles 
for  whose  benefit  Knox  wrote  this  refutation  ;  and 
Knox  has  sometimes  enough  to  do  when  attempting 
to  invalidate  his  arguments. 

These  he  quotes  in  his  antagonist's  own  words, 
often  at  great  length,  and  then  subjoins  a  refutation. 
This  plan  gives  the  book  a  clumsy  appearance, 
occasioning  innumerable  repetitions  ;  and  the  work 
must  be  confessed  to  be  more  a  collection  of 
fragments  than  a  comprehensive  or  masterly  treat- 
ment of  a  great  subject.  Indeed,  at  the  com- 
mencement, the  author  writes  in  a  singularly 
helpless  manner,  as  if  he  were  engaged  in  handling 
tools  which  he  had  not  learned  how  to  use.  There 
is  an  extraordinary  contrast  between  the  dulness 
of  this  work  and  the  piquancy  of  The  History  of 
the  Reformation.  Obviously  the  one  was  written 
invita  Minerva  and  to  order,  the  other  straight  from 
the  heart.  Yet  the  book  improves  as  it  proceeds  ; 
and  the  author  naively  betrays  his  own  consciousness 
of  getting  on  better  ;  saying,  about  the  middle, 
"  Behold  how  smoothly  God  conducteth  our  tossed 
boat  through  the  raging  waves  of  your  furious 
arguments  "  ;  and,  somewhat  later,  "  Behold  your 
spider-webs  with  less  labour  dissolved  and  burst 


HIS  IDEAS  i6r 

than,  I  am  assured,  you  and  your  great  captain 
Castellio  did  spin,  knit  and  weave  the  same."  He 
kindles  into  true  warmth  and  eloquence  when 
refuting  the  slander,  which  has  been  so  often 
launched  against  Calvinism,  that  it  encourages  its 
adherents  to  live  as  they  please ;  and  he  anticipates 
Froude  in  repelling  this  argument  by  pointing  to 
the  moral  condition  of  the  cities  or  countries 
where  Calvinism  has  been  embraced.  The  instance 
chosen  by  him  is  naturally  Geneva ;  and  here  is 
his  flattering  description  of  that  city: — 

"  What  maketh  the  poor  city  of  Geneva — poor, 
I  say,  in  man's  eyes,  but  rich  before  God,  by  the 
plentiful  abundance  of  His  heavenly  graces — what 
maketh  it,  I  say,  so  odious  to  the  carnal  men  of  this 
world  ?  Assuredly  not  this  doctrine  wherewith  ye 
charge  us  ;  for  that  could  well  please  the  carnal 
man,  to  let  him  live  at  his  pleasure  without  all 
punishment.  Is  it  not  the  right  rigour  of  justice 
and  the  severity  of  discipline  executed  therein,  in 
such  sort  that  no  manifest  offender,  wheresoever  he 
hath  committed  his  offence,  doth  there  escape 
punishment  ?  Is  not  this  it  that  so  doth  offend  not 
only  the  licentious  of  the  world,  but  even  you  dis- 
sembling hypocrites  cannot  abide  that  the  sword 
of  God's  vengeance  shall  strike  the  murderer,  the 
blasphemer,  and  such  others  as  God  by  His  Word 

ii 


162  JOHN  KNOX 

commandeth  to  die  ?  Not  so  by  your  judgments  : 
he  must  live  :  he  may  repent.  And  those  common- 
wealths do  ye  highly  praise  where  men  may  live  as 
they  wish,  be  subject  to  no  law  nor  order  ;  yea, 
where  the  drunkard  and  such  other  abominable 
persons  are  permitted  to  live  quietly  and  find  favour 
to  escape  punishment  and  shame.  But,  because  in 
the  streets  of  Geneva  dare  no  notable  malefactor 
shew  his  face  (all  praise  and  glory  be  unto  God) 
any  more  than  dare  the  owl  in  the  bright  sun, 
therefore  is  it  hated." l 

All  the  usual  arguments  against  Calvinism  are 
adduced  in  the  words  of  the  adversary,  and  then 
refuted  one  by  one.  There  is  much  quoting  of 
Scripture  on  both  sides,  with  somewhat  desperate 
shifts  occasionally  to  escape  the  force  of  texts 
which  seem  to  be  hostile,  and  not  infrequently 
the  use  of  texts  as  proofs  which  stand  themselves 
in  need  of  explaining.  The  contention  mainly  turns 
on  the  question  whether  human  responsibility  is 
compatible  with  divine  foreordination  ;  the  adversary 
holding  that  those  who  perish  are  not  responsible 
for  being  lost,  if  they  were  doomed  to  perish  before 
their  birth,  while  Knox  insists  that  they  perish 
justly  for  their  sins  ;  for  he  is  perfectly  clear  that 
this  is  the  correct  statement  of  the  case  :  "  Most 
1  Works,  v.  211. 


HIS  IDEAS  163 

unjustly  you  accuse  us,  laying  to  our  charge  that 
we  burden  God  to  be  the  cause  of  condemnation, 
the  which  we  all  with  one  consent  impute  to  man, 
to  sin,  and  to  the  Devil,  the  first  solicitor  to  sin." 
He  refuses  to  be  charged  with  holding  that  the 
greater  part  of  the  human  race  are  foredoomed  to 
perdition,  as  Calvinists  do  not  profess  to  know 
the  numbers  of  the  saved  or  the  lost ;  and  he  re- 
jects with  holy  abhorrence  the  reproach  that  God, 
according  to  his  teaching,  is  the  author  of  sin. 
Towards  the  close  he  carries  the  war  into  the 
enemy's  country  by  an  account  of  the  origin  and 
tenets  of  the  Anabaptists,  and  especially  of  the 
vagaries  of  Peter  Miinzer  and  the  fanatics  of 
Miinster. 

It  is  curious  how  in  our  own  day  this  mysterious 
subject  should  have  been  brought  again  to  the 
front  through  the  decision  pronounced  in  the  House 
of  Lords  on  I  August  1904,  in  the  case  between 
the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland  and  the  body 
of  its  former  members  who  did  not  enter  the  Union, 
the  Lord  Chancellor  declaring  the  Calvinism  of 
the  Confession  of  Faith  to  be  irreconcilable  with 
the  free  offer  of  the  Gospel,  as  this  is  vindicated 
in  the  Declaratory  Act  of  1892.  This  is  an  ob- 
jection to  Calvinism  of  similar  character  with  many 
brought  against  it  in  this  book  ;  but  it  can  scarcely 


1 64  JOHN  KNOX 

be  said  to  be  specifically  dealt  with  by  Knox  ; 
and  I  am  not  certain  if  he  would  have  come 
well  out  of  an  argument  on  such  a  theme  ;  for 
the  adversary  did  bring  against  him  such  texts 
as  the  one  which  states  that  God  delighteth  not 
in  the  death  of  the  wicked,  and  the  other  which 
asserts  that  He  will  have  all  men  to  be  saved ; 
and  his  manner  of  dealing  with  these  is  not 
very  satisfactory.  He  limits  and  minimises  their 
significance,  instead  of  glorying  in  the  magnanimity 
of  God,  which  they  reveal.  The  truth  is,  the  Church 
has  learned  since  Knox's  time  to  welcome  more 
gladly  and  to  preach  more  emphatically  this  side 
of  Scriptural  truth.  In  the  days  of  Knox  there 
were  no  foreign  missions,  and  these  have  done 
much  to  open  the  mind  and  heart  of  Christendom 
to  many  aspects  of  divine  revelation,  and  this 
one  among  the  rest. 

Calvinists  believe  in  election  not  only  because 
it  is  revealed  in  Scripture,  but  because  it  is 
confirmed  by  experience.  Every  redeemed  man 
knows  that  he  would  never  have  thought  of  God 
unless  God  had  first  thought  of  him.  God  can 
say  to  all  Christians,  "  Ye  have  not  chosen  Me, 
but  I  have  chosen  you  "  ;  and  these  answer,  in 
their  turn,  "  We  love  Him  because  He  first  loved 
us."  But,  on  the  other  hand,  even  clearer  and 


HIS  IDEAS  165 

ampler  is  the  testimony  of  Scripture  that  God 
is  calling  all,  and  that  the  Saviour  is  offered  to 
all  without  distinction.  This  also  is  not  only 
revealed  by  Scripture,  but  confirmed  by  experience ; 
because,  the  more  anyone  is  occupied  in  seeking 
and  saving  the  lost,  the  more  sensible  does  he 
become  of  entering  into  the  very  mind  and  heart 
of  God  ;  and,  the  more  the  Church  carries  out 
the  Saviour's  command  to  preach  the  Gospel  to 
every  creature,  the  more  does  it  know  itself  to 
be  in  harmony  with  the  divine  will.  There  is,  it 
must  be  confessed,  a  mystery  in  this  subject  which 
we  cannot  now  penetrate  and  which  may  be  too  deep 
for  the  human  faculties.  But  election  and  the  free 
offer  of  the  Gospel  are  both  manifestations  of  the 
one  redeeming  love  of  God :  they  are  portions 
of  one  shining  arc,  the  curve  of  which  shows  that 
they  are  destined  to  meet,  although  the  meeting- 
point  is  shrouded  in  the  clouds  and  thick  darkness 
of  Deity. 


CHAPTER     III. 
HIS  POLITICAL  OPINIONS 

ONLY  less  important  to  his  native  land  than 
his  religious  views  were  the  Scottish  Re- 
former's political  opinions.  To  himself,  in  all 
probability,  the  two  appeared  to  be  one  ;  and,  ever 
since,  in  the  Scottish  mind  the  waters  of  religious  and 
political  conviction  have  been  in  close  proximity, 
with  a  constant  tendency  to  mingle.  Substantially 
the  same  political  ideas  as  his  were  propounded 
at  the  same  time  by  George  Buchanan  in  his  work, 
De  Jure  Regni  apud  Scotos,  but  the  renowned 
Humanist  wrote  in  a  foreign  tongue,  whereas  Knox 
conveyed  his  message  in  the  vernacular  ;  and,  while 
Buchanan  addressed  himself  to  the  learned  few,  Knox 
thundered  his  opinions  into  the  ears  of  the  multitude 
with  the  force  and  passion  of  an  orator.  In  the 
generations  which  have  intervened  between  his  day 
and  our  own,  his  ideas  have  been  working  like  a 
leaven  in  the  mind  of  the  Scottish  people  ;  and 
to  him  may  in  no  small  measure  be  ascribed  the 

166 


HIS  IDEAS  167 

type  of  political  conviction,  robust  in  character 
yet  tinged  with  reverence,  which  has  been  the 
prevailing  one  north  of  the  Border. 

As  early  as  1554  we  find  Knox  in  correspondence 
with  Bullinger,  the  Reformer  of  Zurich,  on  the 
following  questions,  which  show  how  much  his  mind 
was  occupied  with  politics  :  i.  Whether  the  son 
of  a  king,  upon  his  father's  death,  though  unable 
by  reason  of  his  tender  age  to  conduct  the  govern- 
ment of  the  kingdom,  is  nevertheless  by  right  of 
inheritance  to  be  regarded  as  a  lawful  magistrate 
and  as  such  to  be  obeyed  as  of  divine  right  ? 
2.  Whether  a  female  can  preside  over  and  rule  a 
kingdom  by  divine  right,  and  so  transfer  the  right 
of  sovereignty  to  her  husband  ?  3.  Whether 
obedience  is  to  be  rendered  to  a  magistrate  who 
enforces  idolatry  and  condemns  true  religion, 
and  whether  those  authorities  that  are  still  in 
military  occupation  of  towns  and  fortresses  are 
permitted  to  repel  this  ungodly  violence  from 
themselves  and  their  friends?  4.  To  which  party 
must  godly  persons  attach  themselves  in  the  case 
of  a  religious  nobility  resisting  an  idolatrous 
sovereign  ? l  Ten  years  later,  in  a  committee  of 
the  General  Assembly,  he  debated  topics  of  the 
same  kind,  at  great  length  and  in  high  spirits,  with 
'  Works,  iii.  221  ff. 


168  JOHN  KNOX 

Maitland  of  Lethington,  the  only  man  on  the 
opposite  side  who  was  able  to  stand  up  to  him 
in  argument  ;  and  the  decision  with  which  he  then 
summed  up  the  debate  proved  that  in  the  interval 
he  had  made  up  his  own  mind  on  nearly  every 
point.1  The  ripening  process  may  be  seen  going 
on  in  such  productions  of  his  pen,  between  these 
two  dates,  as  his  Appellation  to  the  Nobility  and  his 
Letter  to  the  Commonalty  of  Scotland,  issued  on 
the  eve  of  his  final  return  to  his  native  land,  and 
especially  in  a  series  of  proclamations  which  he 
sent  out,  in  the  name  of  the  Lords  of  the 
Congregation,  during  the  progress  of  the  civil  war 
waged  with  Mary  of  Guise. 

It  cannot  be  considered  a  circumstance  favourable 
to  Knox's  political  reputation  that  his  best  known 
contribution  to  political  doctrine  is  The  First  Blast 
of  the  Trumpet  against  the  Monstrous  Regiment  of 
Women,  in  which  he  maintains  the  thesis  that  to 
allow  a  woman  to  occupy  a  throne  is  contrary 
to  both  reason  and  Scripture.  This  treatise  was 
published  in  the  very  year  when  the  reign  began 
which  it  has  been  usual  to  consider  the  most 
illustrious  in  British  history,  and  this  was  the  reign 

1  History,  ii.  425  ff. 


HIS  IDEAS  169 

of  a  woman  ;  and,  if  we  read  it  now,  it  is  with 
the  memory  fresh  in  our  minds  of  the  only  other 
reign  in  our  .annals  which  can  compete  with  that 
of  Elizabeth — the  glorious  reign  of  Queen  Victoria. 
Against  such  a  refutation  of  facts  no  logic  can 
successfully  contend  ;  and,  therefore,  it  is  scarcely 
worth  while  to  recall  the  arguments  of  the  author. 
Suffice  it  to  say,  that  he  unfolded  no  inconsiderable 
learning  in  the  quotation  of  authorities,  both  classical 
and  Christian,  on  his  side,  and  that  he  wielded  the 
argument  from  Scripture  with  his  usual  copiousness 
and  ingenuity.  Happily,  he  had  left  himself  a 
loophole  of  escape,  by  allowing  that  there  might 
be  exceptions  to  the  rule;  but  Queen  Elizabeth 
was  not  likely  to  be  much  mollified  by  his  offer 
to  give  her  the  benefit  of  this  doubt,  when  it  was 
conveyed  in  the  following  terms  : — 

"  Nothing  in  my  book  contained  is  or  can  be 
prejudicial  to  your  Grace's  just  regiment,  provided 
that  you  be  not  found  ungrateful  unto  God. 
Ungrate  you  shall  be  proved  in  presence  of  His 
throne,  howsoever  the  flatterers  justify  your  acts, 
if  you  transfer  the  glory  of  that  in  which  you 
now  stand  to  any  other  thing  than  to  the  dispensa- 
tion of  His  mercies,  which  only  maketh  that 
truthful  to  your  Grace  which  nature  and  law 
denieth  to  all  women.  Neither  would  I  that 


170  JOHN  KNOX 

your  Grace  should  fear  that  this  your  humilia- 
tion before  God  should,  in  any  case,  infirm  and 
weaken  your  just  and  lawful  authority  before  men. 
Nay,  Madam,  such  unfeigned  confession  of  God's 
benefits  received  shall  be  the  establishment  of  the 
same,  not  only  to  yourself  but  also  to  your  seed 
and  posterity  ;  where,  contrariwise,  a  proud  conceit 
and  elevation  of  yourself  shall  be  the  occasion  that 
your  reign  shall  be  unstable,  troublesome  and  short. 
God  is  witness  that  unfeignedly  I  both  reverence 
and  love  your  Grace  ;  yea,  I  pray  that  your  reign 
may  be  long,  prosperous  and  quiet  ;  and  that  for 
the  quietness  which  Christ's  members,  before  perse- 
cuted, have  received  under  you.  Yet,  if  I  should 
flatter  your  Grace,  I  were  no  friend,  but  a  deceitful 
traitor  ;  and,  therefore,  of  conscience  I  am  compelled 
to  say,  that  neither  the  consent  of  people,  process 
of  time,  nor  multitude  of  men  can  establish  a  law 
which  God  shall  approve  ;  but,  whatsoever  He  ap- 
proveth  by  His  eternal  Word  that  shall  be  approved, 
and  whatsoever  He  damneth  that  shall  be  con- 
demned, though  all  men  on  earth  should  hazard  the 
justification  of  the  same.  And  therefore,  Madam,  the 
only  way  to  retain  and  keep  these  benefits  of  God, 
abundantly  poured  out  of  late  days  upon  you  and 
your  realm,  is  unfeignedly  to  render  unto  God's 
mercy  and  undeserved  grace  the  whole  glory  of  this 


HIS  IDEAS  i71 

your  exaltation.  Forget  your  birth  and  all  title 
which  thereupon  doth  hang,  and  consider  deeply 
how  for  fear  of  your  life  you  did  decline  from 
God  and  bow  in  idolatry.  Let  it  not  appear  a 
small  offence  in  your  eyes  that  you  have  declined 
from  Christ  Jesus  in  the  day  of  His  battle.  Neither 
yet  would  I  that  you  should  esteem  the  mercy 
to  be  vulgar  and  common  which  you  have  received, 
to  wit,  that  God  hath  covered  your  former  offences, 
hath  preserved  you  when  you  were  most  unthankful, 
and  in  the  end  hath  exalted  and  raised  you  up 
not  only  from  the  dust  but  also  from  the  ports 
of  death  to  rule  over  His  people  for  the  comfort 
of  His  Kirk.  It  appertaineth  to  you,  therefore,  to 
ground  the  justness  of  your  authority  not  upon 
that  law  which  from  year  to  year  doth  change, 
but  upon  the  eternal  providence  of  Him  who, 
contrary  to  nature  and  without  your  deserving, 
hath  thus  'exalted  your  head.  If  thus  in  God's 
presence  you  humble  yourself,  as  in  my  heart  I 
glorify  God  for  that  rest  granted  to  His  afflicted 
flock  within  England  under  you,  a  weak  instrument, 
so  will  I  with  tongue  and  pen  justify  your  authority 
and  regiment  as  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  justified 
the  same  in  Deborah,  that  blessed  mother  in  Israel. 
But,  if  these  premises  (as  God  forbid)  be  neglected, 
and  you  shall  begin  to  brag  of  your  birth  and 


172  JOHN  KNOX 

build  your  authority  upon  your  law,  flatter  you 
whoso  list,  your  felicity  shall  be  short.  Interpret 
my  words  in  the  best  part,  as  written  by  him  who 
is  no  enemy  to  your  Grace." 

For  government  in  the  abstract  Knox  had  the 
profoundest  veneration.  He  abhorred  anarchy, 
and,  when  he  heard  in  Geneva  that  some  of  the 
adherents  of  the  Reformation  in  Scotland  were 
thinking  of  revolution,  he  wrote  an  earnest  letter 
of  dissuasion,  hinting  to  them  that  they  were  being 
made  the  dupes  of  political  adventurers.  But 
government  must  be  good  government — that  is  to 
say,  it  must  be  favourable  to  the  happiness  and 
the  virtue  of  the  subjects — this  is  the  assumption 
lying  at  the  back  of  all  Knox's  political  theories. 
He  regarded  government  as  a  divine  arrangement 
for  preserving  order  in  human  affairs,  and  for  making 
it  easy  to  live  righteously  and  difficult  to  live  un- 
righteously, so  that  thereby  the  population  should 
grow  up  healthy  and  wealthy,  and  the  resources 
of  the  country  be  developed.  For  such  a  govern- 
ment there  is  requisite  in  princes  and  those  who 
stand  beside  them  at  the  head  of  affairs  a  serious 
mind,  because  a  great  trust  is  committed  to  them — 
the  welfare  of  tens  of  thousands.  They  have  to 
be  parents  and  shepherds  to  the  people,  and  their 


HIS  IDEAS  I73 

honour  lies  in  the  prosperity  and  improvement   of 
those  over  whom  they  rule. 

In  our  day  such  ideas  are  common  property, 
and  their  justice  will  be  generally  admitted.  In 
literature  the  king  is  represented  to  be 

but  as  the  hind 

To  whom  a  space  of  land  is  given  to  plough, 
Who  may  not  wander  from  the  allotted  field 
Before  his  work  be  done; 

and  in  speculations  about  the  vocation  of  the  states- 
man he  is  always  viewed  as  a  servant  of  the  public. 
In  short,  the  maxim  of  our  Lord  in  the  Gospel 
is  penetrating  the  general  mind,  that  greatness  is 
measured  by  service.  But  it  requires  slight  know- 
ledge of  history  to  be  aware  how  little  this  has  been 
realised  in  the  past,  and  especially  how  little  favour 
it  has  found  in  courts.  There  greatness  has  generally 
been  measured  by  a  very  different  standard ;  the 
position  of  a  prince  being  considered  an  opportunity 
for  indulgence,  and  even  the  Decalogue  being 
assumed  to  be  relaxed  in  his  favour.  Not  the  duties 
of  kings,  but  their  prerogatives  have  been  the 
favourite  topics  of  court  philosophers  and  court 
preachers.  In  the  century  after  that  of  Knox 
the  divine  right  of  kings  was  the  doctrine  oftenest 
heard-of  at  the  court  of  the  Stuarts  ;  and  James  the 
First  of  England  was  well  aware  that  John  Knox 


174  JOHN  KNOX 

had  been  no  friend  of  the  supremacy  to  which  he 
laid  claim.1 

But  what  was  to  happen  if  government  should  be 
bad — if,  instead  of  promoting  the  welfare  of  the  people, 
it  fastened  on  their  necks  a  yoke  of  oppression,  and 
if,  instead  of  promoting  religion  and  virtue,  it 
fostered  superstition  and  encouraged  immorality  ? 
This  was  the  question  which  Scotland  had  to  face 
in  the  evil  days  of  Mary  of  Guise,  when  the  country 
was  overrun  with  French  soldiery,  and  in  those 
of  Mary  Stuart,  when  French  manners  were  in- 
troduced at  court  and  the  attempt  was  made  to 
overturn  the  Protestant  Reformation  ;  and  Scotland 
looked  for  the  answer  to  John  Knox. 

To  him  it  was  axiomatic  that  there  must  be  some 
remedy.  It  never  occurred  to  him  that  a  country 
should  put  up  with  bad  government  on  account  of 
the  supposed  rights  of  princes.  To  his  mind  the 
supreme  right  was  that  of  the  country  to  enjoy  good 
order  and  to  advance  in  the  path  of  progress. 

First,  in  such  an  event  he  would  have  recourse 
to  the  nobility,  who,  he  maintained,  held  their  places 
and  honours  for  no  other  end  than  the  benefit  of  the 
citizens  in  general.  "  My  petition,"  says  he,  "  is, 
that  ye,  whom  God  hath  appointed  heads  in  your 

1  See, a  remarkable  utterance  of  his  quoted  by  Laing  in  Works, 
iv-  435- 


HIS  IDEAS  I75 

commonwealth,  with  single  eye  do  study  to  promote 
the  glory  of  God  ;  to  provide  that  your  subjects 
be  rightly  instructed  in  His  true  religion  ;  that  they 
may  be  defended  from  all  oppression  and  tyranny  ; 
that  true  teachers  may  be  maintained  and  such  as 
blind  and  deceive  the  people,  together  with  all  idle 
bellies,  which  do  rob  and  oppress  the  flock,  may  be 
removed  and  punished  as  God's  law  prescribeth. 
And  to  the  performance  of  every  one  of  these  do 
your  offices  and  names,  the  honours  and  benefits 
which  ye  receive,  the  law  of  God  universally  given 
to  all  men,  and  the  examples  of  most  godly  princes 
bind  and  oblige  you."  "Be  not  deceived,  my 
Lords,"  he  adds,  "  ye  are  placed  in  authority  for 
another  purpose  than  to  flatter  your  king  in  his  folly 
and  blind  rage  :  to  wit,  that,  as  with  your  strength, 
riches  and  wisdom  ye  are  bound  to  assist  and  defend 
him  in  all  things  which  by  your  advice  he  shall  take 
in  hand  for  God's  glory,  so  by  your  gravities,  counsel 
and  admonition  ye  are  bound  to  correct  and  repress 
whatsoever  ye  know  him  to  attempt  expressly 
repugning  to  God's  Word,  honour  and  glory,  or  what 
ye  shall  espy  him  to  do,  be  it  by  ignorance  or  be  it 
by  malice,  against  his  subjects  great  or  small."  1 

But,   if  nobles  as  well  as  kings  should  turn  out 
to  be  impracticable,   there    was  still  a  resource  in 
»  Works,  iv.  480,  493- 


176  JOHN  KNOX 

the  people  themselves  ;  and  to  this  body  Knox  did 
not   hesitate   to  appeal  in  these  terms  :  "  Although 
ye  be  but  subjects,  ye  may  lawfully  require  of  your 
superiors,  be   it  of  your  king,  be  it  of  your  lords, 
rulers   and    powers,  that  they  provide  for  you  true 
preachers,  and  that  they  expel   such   as,  under  the 
name  of  pastors,  devour  and  destroy  the  flock,  not 
feeding  the  same   as  Christ  Jesus  has  commanded. 
And,   if  in   this   point  your  superiors  be  negligent, 
or  yet  pretend  to  maintain  tyrants  in  their  tyranny, 
most  justly  ye  may  provide  true  teachers   for  your- 
selves, be  it  in  your  cities,  towns  or  villages.      Them 
ye  shall  maintain  and  defend  against   all  that  shall 
persecute  them  and  by  that  means  shall  labour  to 
defraud  you  of  that  most  comfortable  food  of  your 
souls,  Christ's    Evangel    truly  preached.     Ye    may, 
moreover,  withhold  the  fruits  and  profits  which  your 
false  bishops    and   clergy   most   unjustly  receive  of 
you,  until  such  time  as  they  be  compelled  faithfully 
to  do  their  charge  and  duties,  which  is   to  preach 
unto    you    Christ    Jesus    truly,    rightly  to    minister 
the  sacraments  according  to  His  own  institution,  and 
so  to  watch  for  the  salvation  of  your  souls." 

In  such  words  there  are  surely  the  seeds  of  things 
which,  since  then,  have  grown  in  Scotland  and  the 
world,  although  they  have  not  even  yet  come  to 
full  maturity ;  as,  indeed,  in  the  Letter  to  the 


HIS  IDEAS  177 

Commonalty  of  Scotland,  in  which  they  occur,  the 
author  rises  to  the  highest  pitch  of  eloquence  of 
which  he  is  capable :  "  Neither  would  I,"  says  he, 
"  that  you  should  esteem  the  reformation  and  care 
of  religion  less  to  appertain  to  you,  because  you 
are  no  kings,  judges,  rulers,  nobles,  nor  in  authority. 
Beloved  brethren,  you  are  God's  creatures,  created 
and  formed  in  His  own  image  and  similitude,  for 
whose  redemption  was  shed  the  most  precious  blood 
of  the  only  beloved  Son  of  God,  to  whom  He  hath 
commanded  His  Gospel  and  glad  tidings  to  be 
preached,  and  for  whom  He  hath  prepared  the 
heavenly  inheritance,  so  that  you  will  not  obstinately 
refuse  and  disdainfully  condemn  the  means  which 
He  hath  appointed  to  obtain  the  same :  to  wit,  His 
blessed  Evangel,  which  He  now  offereth  to  you  to 
the  end  that  you  may  be  saved.  For  the  Gospel 
and  glad  tidings  of  the  kingdom  truly  preached  is 
the  power  of  God  to  the  salvation  of  every  believer, 
which  to  credit  and  receive  you,  the  commonalty, 
are  no  less  bound  than  are  your  rulers  and  princes. 
For,  albeit  God  hath  put  and  ordained  distinction 
and  difference  betwixt  the  king  and  subjects,  betwixt 
the  rulers  and  the  common  people,  in  the  regiment 
and  the  administration  of  civil  policies,  yet  in  the  hope 
of  the  life  to  come  He  hath  made  all  equal.  For 
as  in  Christ  Jesus  the  Jew  hath  no  greater  prerogative 

12 


178  JOHN  KNOX 

than  has  the  Gentile,  the  man  than  hath  the  woman, 
the  learned  than  the  unlearned,  the  lord  than  the 
servant,  but  all  are  one  in  Him,  so  is  there  but  one 
way  and  means  to  attain  to  the  participation  of  His 
benefits  and  spiritual  graces,  which  is  a  lively  faith 
working  by  charity.  And,  therefore,  I  say,  that 
it  doth  no  less  appertain  to  you,  beloved  brethren, 
to  be  assured  that  your  faith  and  religion  be 
grounded  and  established  upon  the  true  and  un- 
doubted Word  of  God  than  to  your  princes  or 
rulers."  l 

The  constitutional  idea  embodied  in  the  title  of 
the  treatise  of  Samuel  Rutherford  on  Government, 
which  is  one  of  the  landmarks  in  the  history  of 
politics — Lex  Rex — was  not  unknown  in  the  days 
of  Knox.  At  the  meeting  of  the  committee  of  the 
General  Assembly  already  mentioned,  it  was  pro- 
pounded by  John  Craig,  the  colleague  of  Knox 
in  Edinburgh,  who  said  that,  when  attending  the 
University  of  Bologna,  he  had  heard  it  stated  in 
a  disputation  in  these  terms — "  that  all  rulers,  be 
they  supreme  or  be  they  inferior,  may  and  ought 
to  be  reformed  and  deposed  by  them  by  whom  they 
are  chosen,  confirmed  or  admitted  to  their  office, 
as  oft  as  they  break  that  promise  made  by  oath 
to  their  subjects ;  because  that  their  prince  is  no 
1  Works,  iv.  534,  526. 


HIS  IDEAS  I79 

less  bound  by  oath  to  the  subjects  than  are  the  '• 
subjects  to  their  princes  ;  and,  therefore,  ought  they 
to  be  kept  and  reformed  equally,  according  to  the 
law  and  condition  of  the  oath  that  is  made  of  either 
party  "  ;  and  to  this  doctrine  Craig  signified  his  own 
adherence.  In  Knox's  mind  regal  authority  was 
not  based  on  a  contract  like  this,  assumed  to  subsist 
between  rulers  and  subjects  and  liable  to  be  dissolved 
in  case  the  ruler  proved  untrue  to  it,  but  rather 
on  a  pledge  assumed  to  be  given  by  the  prince 
to  God,  who  withdraws  His  support,  when  the  pledge 
is  broken,  and  so  lets  the  throne  topple  to  the 
ground.  By  committing  capital  crimes — and  it  has 
to  be  remembered  that  in  Knox's  estimation 
adultery  and  idolatry  are  to  be  numbered  among 
these,  and  that  in  his  eyes  the  Mass  was  idolatry — 
a  king  or  queen  was,  just  as  much  as  a  private 
person,  rendered  liable  to  capital  punishment ;  and, 
in  places  where  such  crimes  are  perpetrated  by 
princes,  it  is  not  only  lawful  to  punish  to  the  death 
those  who  are  guilty  of  them,  "  but  the  magistrates 
and  people  are  bound  so  to  do,  unless  they  will  pro- 
voke the  wrath  of  God  against  themselves."  "  And, 
therefore,"  he  adds,  "  I  fear  not  to  affirm  that  it 
had  been  the  duty  of  the  nobility,  judges,  rulers  and 
people  of  England,  not  only  to  have  resisted  and 
gainstanded  Mary,  that  Jezebel,  whom  they  call 


i8o  JOHN  KNOX 

their  Queen,  but  also  to  have  punished  her  to  the 
death,  with  all  the  sort  of  her  idolatrous  priests, 
together  with  all  such  as  should  have  assisted  her, 
what  time  that  she  and  they  openly  began  to 
suppress  Christ's  Evangel,  to  shed  the  blood  of  the 
saints  of  God,  and  to  erect  that  most  devilish  idolatry, 
the  Pope's  abominations,  and  his  usurped  tyranny, 
that  once  most  justly  by  common  oath  was  banished 
from  that  realm."1  And  the  same  principles  are 
explicitly  stated  in  the  following  programme  of 
what  was  to  be  The  Second  Blast  of  the  Trumpet : — 
"  i.  It  is  not  birth  only,  nor  propinquity  of  blood, 
that  maketh  a  king  lawfully  to  reign  above  a  people 
professing  Christ  Jesus  and  His  eternal  verity ;  but 
in  his  election  must  the  ordinance,  which  God  hath 
established  in  the  election  of  inferior  judges,  be 
observed  ;  2.  No  manifest  idolater  nor  notorious 
transgressor  of  God's  holy  precepts  ought  to  be 
promoted  to  any  public  regiment,  honour  or  dignity 
in  any  realm,  province  or  city  that  hath  subjected 
themselves  to  Christ  Jesus  and  to  His  blessed 
Evangel  ;  3.  Neither  can  oath  nor  promise  bind 
any  such  people  to  obey  and  maintain  tyrants 
against  God,  and  against  His  truth  known  ;  4.  But, 
if  either  rashly  they  have  promoted  any  manifest 
wicked  person  or  yet  ignorantly  have  chosen  such 
1  Works,  iv.  509. 


HIS  IDEAS  181 

an  one  as  after  declareth  himself  unworthy  of  regiment 
above  the  people  of  God  (and  such  be  all  idolaters 
and  cruel  persecutors),  most  justly  may  the  same  men 
depose  and  punish  him  that  unadvisedly  before  they 
did  nominate,  appoint  and  elect."  l 

Not  only  did  Knox  hold  these  principles  in 
theory,  but  he  put  them  into  practice.  When  he 
arrived  in  Scotland  in  1559,  he  found  the  country, 
as  we  have  seen,  enveloped  in  the  flames  of  civil 
war,  and  he  did  not  hesitate  to  plunge  into  the 
revolution.  On  him  fell  the  responsibility  of 
justifying  the  procedure  of  those  with  whom  he 
had  identified  himself ;  and,  from  the  camp  of  the 
rebels,  he  issued  manifesto  after  manifesto,  expound- 
ing the  situation  to  his  fellow-countrymen  and 
endeavouring  to  secure  their  co-operation  in  the 
struggle.  The  most  vivid  and  condensed,  however, 
of  these  productions  of  his  pen  at  this  crisis  is 
one  which  does  not  appear  to  have  been  published 
with  the  authority  of  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation, 
perhaps  because  it  was  too  strong  even  for  their 
taste  ;  but  it  is  a  document  essential  to  those  who 
wish  to  behold  the  very  Knox  as  he  really  was  ; 
and,  therefore,  it  shall  be  given  in  full  : — 

"If  it  be  seditious  to  speak  the  truth  in  all 
sobriety,  and  to  complain  when  they  are  wounded, 
1  Works,  iv.  537. 


1 82  JOHN  KNOX 

or  to  call  for  help  against  unjust  tyranny  before 
that  their  throats  be  cut,  then  can  we  not  deny 
but  we  are  criminal  and  guilty  of  tumult  and 
sedition.  For  we  have  said  that  our  common- 
wealth is  oppressed,  that  we  and  our  brethren  are 
hurt  by  the  tyranny  of  strangers,  and  that  we  fear 
bondage  and  slavery,  seeing  that  multitudes  of 
cruel  murderers  are  daily  brought  in  our  country 
without  our  counsel,  or  knowledge  and  consent 
We  dispute  not  so  much  whether  the  bringing  in 
of  more  Frenchmen  be  violating  of  the  Appointment 
(which  the  Queen  nor  her  faction  cannot  deny 
to  be  manifestly  broken  by  them,  in  more  cases 
than  one)  as  that  we  would  know,  if  the  heaping 
of  strangers  upon  strangers  above  us,  without  our 
counsel  or  consent,  be  a  thing  that  may  stand 
with  the  liberty  of  our  realm  and  with  the  profit 
of  our  commonwealth.  It  is  not  unknown  to  all 
men  of  judgment,  that  the  fruits  of  our  country 
in  the  most  common  years  are  no  more  than 
sufficiently  reasonable  to  nourish  the  born  inhabitants 
of  the  same.  But  now,  seeing  that  we  have  been 
vexed  with  wars,  taken  upon  us  at  the  pleasure 
of  France,  by  which  the  most  fruitful  portion  of 
our  country  in  corn  has  been  wasted  ;  what  man 
is  so  blind  but  that  he  may  see,  that  such  bands 
of  ungodly  and  idle  soldiers  can  be  nothing  else 


HIS  IDEAS  ,83 

but  an  occasion  to  famish  our  poor  brethren  ? 
And  in  this  point  we  refuse  not  (which  is  the  chief) 
the  judgment  of  all  natural  Scottish  men. 

"  The  Queen  Regent  alleged  '  that  although  there 
were  a  hundred  Frenchmen  for  one  in  Scotland, 
yet  she  is  not  minded  to  trouble  any  in  his  just 
possession.'  Whereto  we  answer,  that  we  dispute 
not  what  she  intends  (which,  nevertheless,  by 
probable  conjectures,  is  to  be  suspected)  but  always 
we  affirm,  that  such  a  multitude  of  Frenchmen  is 
a  burden,  not  only  unprofitable  but  also  intolerable 
to  this  poor  realm  ;  for  the  poor  commons  of 
this  realm  have  sustained  them  with  the  sweat  of 
their  brows,  since  the  contracting  of  the  peace 
and  somewhat  before.  What  motherly  affection  she 
has  declared  to  this  realm  and  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  same,  her  works  have  evidently  declared 
ever  since  the  first  hour  that  she  has  borne  authority  ; 
and,  albeit  men  will  not  this  day  see  what  danger 
hangs  over  their  heads,  yet  fear  we,  that  ere  it  be 
long,  experience  shall  teach  some  that  we  fear 
not  without  cause.  The  cruel  murder  and  oppression 
used  by  them  whom  now  she  fosters  is  to  us  a 
sufficient  argument,  what  is  to  be  looked  for,  when 
her  number  is  so  multiplied  that  our  force  shall 
not  be  able  to  gainstand  their  tyranny. 

"  Where  she  complains  of  our  preachers,  affirming 


1 84  JOHN  KNOX 

that  irreverently  they  speak  of  princes  in  general 
and  of  her  in  particular,  inducing  the  people  thereby 
to  defection  from  their  duty,  etc.,  and,  therefore, 
that  such  a  thing  cannot  be  suffered,  because  this 
occasion  is  had  against  God's  true  ministers,  we 
cannot  but  witness  what  tread  and  order  of  doctrine 
they  have  kept,  and  yet  keep  on  that  point.  In 
public  prayers  they  commend  to  God  all  princes 
in  general  and  the  magistrates  of  this  our  native 
realm  in  particular.  In  open  audience  they  declare 
the  authority  of  princes  and  magistrates  to  be  of 
God  ;  and  therefore  they  affirm  that  they  ought 
to  be  honoured,  feared,  obeyed,  even  for  conscience' 
sake ;  provided  that  they  command  nor  require 
nothing  expressly  repugning  to  God's  commandment 
and  plain  will,  revealed  in  His  holy  Word.  More- 
over, they  affirm  that,  if  wicked  persons,  abusing 
the  authority  established  by  God,  command  things 
manifestly  wicked,  that  such  as  may  and  do  bridle 
the  inordinate  appetites  of  princes  cannot  be 
accused  as  resisters  of  the  authority  which  is  God's 
good  ordinance.  To  bridle  the  fury  and  rage  of 
princes  in  free  kingdoms  and  realms,  they  affirm 
it  appertains  to  the  nobility,  sworn  and  born 
counsellors  of  the  same,  and  also  to  the  barons  and 
people,  whose  votes  and  consent  are  to  be  required  in 
all  great  and  weighty  matters  of  the  commonwealth. 


HIS  IDEAS  185 

Which  if  they  do  not,  they  declare  themselves 
criminal  with  their  princes,  and  so  subject  to  the 
same  vengeance  of  God,  which  they  deserve  for  that 
they  pollute  the  seat  of  justice  and  do,  as  it  were, 
make  God  author  of  iniquity.  They  proclaim  and 
they  cry,  that  the  same  God  who  plagued  Pharaoh, 
repulsed  Sennacherib,  struck  Herod  with  worms, 
and  made  the  bellies  of  dogs  the  grave  and 
sepulchre  of  despiteful  Jezebel,  will  not  spare 
the  cruel  princes,  murderers  of  Christ's  members 
in  this  our  time.  In  this  manner  they  speak  of 
princes  in  general  and  of  your  Grace  in  particular. 
"  This  only  we  have  heard  one  of  our  preachers 
say,  rebuking  the  vain  excuse  of  such  as  flatter  them- 
selves, by  reason  of  the  authority:  'Many  now-a- 
days,'  said  he,  '  will  have  no  other  religion  or  faith 
than  the  Queen  and  the  authority  had.'  But  is  it 
not  possible,  that  the  Queen  be  so  far  blinded  that 
she  will  have  no  religion,  nor  no  other  faith,  than 
may  content  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine?  And  may 
it  not  likewise  be  that  the  Cardinal  be  so  corrupt 
that  he  will  admit  no  religion  which  does  not 
establish  the  Pope  in  his  kingdom  ?  But  plain  it 
is  that  the  Pope  is  lieutenant  to  Satan  and  enemy 
to  Christ  Jesus  and  to  His  perfect  religion.  Let 
men,  therefore,  consider  what  danger  they  stand 
in,  if  their  salvation  shall  depend  upon  the  Queen's 


1 86  JOHN  KNOX 

faith  and  religion.  Further  we  have  never  heard 
any  of  our  preachers  speak  of  the  Queen  Regent, 
neither  publicly  nor  privately. 

"  Where  her  Grace  declares  it  will  not  be  suffered 
that  our  preachers  meddle  with  policy,  nor  speak 
of  her  nor  of  other  princes  but  with  reverence,  we 
answer  that,  as  we  will  justify  and  defend  nothing  in 
our  preachers  which  we  find  not  God  to  have  justified 
and  allowed  in  His  messengers  before  them,  so  dare 
we  not  forbid  them  openly  to  reprehend  that  which  the 
Spirit  of  God,  speaking  in  the  prophets  and  apostles, 
has  reprehended  before  them.  Elijah  did  personally 
reprove  Ahab  and  Jezebel  of  idolatry,  of  avarice, 
of  murder  ;  and,  such  like,  Isaiah  the  prophet  called 
the  magistrates  of  Jerusalem  in  his  times  companions 
to  thieves,  princes  of  Sodom,  bribe-takers  and 
murderers.  He  complained  that  their  silver  was 
turned  into  dross,  that  their  wine  was  mingled 
with  water,  and  that  justice  was  bought  and  sold. 
Jeremiah  said  that  the  bones  of  king  Jehoiakim 
should  wither  with  the  sun.  Christ  Jesus  called 
Herod  a  fox,  and  Paul  called  the  High  Priest  a 
painted  wall,  and  prayed  unto  God  that  He  should 
strike  him,  because  that  against  justice  he  commanded 
him  to  be  smitten.  Now,  if  the  like  or  greater 
corruptions  be  in  the  world  this  day,  who  dare 
enterprise  to  put  silence  to  the  Spirit  of  God, 


HIS  IDEAS  187 

which  will  not  be  subject  to  the  appetites  of  wicked 
princes  ?  " ] 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  continual  agitation 
of  such  fundamental  questions  would  be  dangerous 
to  the  tranquillity  of  any  state.  But  the  apology  of 
Knox  would  be,  that  his  was  an  exceptional  time, 
and  that  the  thorough  discussion  of  the  principles 
applicable  to  such  a  period  of  transition  tended 
to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  the  evils  against  which 
extreme  measures  had  to  be  taken. 

To  the  rights  of  bad  rulers  Knox  turned  an 
ear  as  deaf  as  that  of  the  adder  ;  but,  it  being 
assumed  that  a  ruler  of  the  right  stamp  had  been 
secured,  he  would  have  entrusted  him  with  very 
comprehensive  powers  indeed.  Even  to  Mary  of 
Lorraine,  at  a  time  when  he  still  had  hope  of 
winning  her  to  the  Protestant  side,  he  suffered 
himself  to  say  :  "  You  think,  peradventure,  that  the 
care  of  religion  is  not  committed  to  magistrates, 
but  to  the  bishops  and  estate  ecclesiastical,  as  they 
term  it.  No,  no,  the  negligence  of  bishops  shall 
no  less  be  required  of  the  hands  of  magistrates, 
because  they  foster  and  maintain  them  in  tyranny, 
than  shall  the  oppression  of  false  judges,  whom 
kings  maintain  and  defend."2  And,  in  a  similar 
1  History,  i.  409.  '  Works> iv'  ^ 


188  JOHN  KNOX 

strain,  he  says  to  the  Scottish  nobility  in  the  Appella- 
tion already  quoted  :  "  I  am  not  ignorant  that  Satan 
of  old  time,  for  maintenance  of  his  darkness,  hath 
obtained  of  the  blind  world  two  chief  points — former, 
he  hath  persuaded  princes,  rulers  and  magistrates 
that  the  feeding  of  Christ's  flock  appertained 
nothing  to  their  charge,  but  that  it  is  devolved  upon 
the  bishops  and  estate  ecclesiastical  ;  and,  secondarily, 
that  the  reformation  of  religion,  be  it  ever  so  corrupt, 
and  the  punishment  of  such  as  be  sworn  soldiers 
in  their  kingdom,  are  exempted  from  all  civil  power 
and  are  reserved  to  themselves  and  to  their  own 
cognition.  But  that  no  offender  can  be  justly 
exempted  from  punishment,  and  that  the  ordering 
and  reformation  of  religion  with  the  instruction  of 
subjects  doth  especially  appertain  to  the  civil 
magistrate,  shall  God's  perfect  ordinance,  His  plain 
Word,  and  the  facts  and  examples  of  those  that 
of  God  are  highly  praised,  most  evidently  declare." 

So  far  was  he  prepared  to  go,  on  the  assumption 
that  the  ruler  was  of  the  right  character  and  on 
his  own  side,  that  he  sanctioned  persecution  and 
spoke  of  toleration  with  scorn.  Writing  from 
Geneva,  he  does  not  scruple  to  associate  himself 
with  those  who  burnt  Servetus,  even  saying  that 
that  heretic's  opinions  deserved  ten  thousand  deaths. 
He  was  not  without  warning  ;  for  the  acute  anta- 


HIS  IDEAS  !g9 

gonist  against  whom  he  wrote  his  treatise  on  Pre- 
destination had  shrewdly  remarked  of  the  Calvinists  : 
"  They  put  forth  books,  affirming  it  to  be  lawful 
to  persecute  and  put  to  death  such  as  dissent  from 
them  in  controversies  of  religion,  whom  they  call 
blasphemers  of  God.  Notwithstanding  they,  afore 
they  came  to  authority,  were  of  another  judgment, 
and  did  both  say  and  write,  that  no  man  ought 
to  be  persecuted  for  conscience"  sake.  Yet  now  they 
are  not  only  become  persecutors,  but  also  they  have 
given,  as  far  as  lieth  in  them,  the  sword  into  the 
hands  of  bloody  tyrants."  l 

It  is  indeed  surprising  that  the  mind  of  Knox 
did  not  perceive  this  to  be,  in  fact,  the  logical  issue 
of  his  principles.  But  his  eyes  were  holden.  For 
such  a  man  as  he,  it  is  not  enough  to  plead 
that  intolerance  was  the  doctrine  of  the  age,  and 
even  of  generations  after  him ;  because  he  ought 
to  have  risen  above  his  age.  It  would,  indeed, 
be  unfair  to  blame  him  for  not  being  able  to 
determine  with  accuracy  at  all  points  the  relation 
of  Church  and  state  ;  for  this  involves  problems 
which  have  demanded  the  thought  and  experience 
of  centuries,  and  are  not  perfectly  solved  yet ;  but 
by  his  own  sufferings  and  those  of  his  friends  he  ought 
to  have  been  better  instructed  on  the  subject  of 
1  Works,  v.  208. 


IQO  JOHN  KNOX 

religious  persecution  ;  and  it  is  a  blot  on  his 
political  memory  that  he  did  not  judge  more 
charitably.  Still  more  must  it  be  reckoned  to  him 
for  unrighteousness,  as  an  ecclesiastical  statesman, 
that  he  approved  of  the  barbarous  actions  by  which 
the  country  got  rid  of  Cardinal  Beaton  and  David 
Rizzio. 


BOOK    THIRD 
HIS  IDEALS 


191 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE   SCOTS   CONFESSION    OF   FAITH 

IT  has  already  been  remarked  that,  in  his  life- 
time, John  Knox  was  credited  with  being  a 
prophet  ;  and  there  is  nothing  which  more  tends 
to  attract  to  anyone  the  curiosity  and  veneration 
of  other  human  beings  than  the  impression  that 
he  is  able  to  lift  a  corner  of  the  curtain  of  futurity. 
Perhaps  he  was  not  himself  altogether  averse  to 
the  interest  in  his  person  excited  by  this  vague 
belief ;  but,  on  the  whole,  his  views  on  the  subject 
were  perfectly  sane :  "  My  assurances,"  he  said, 
11  are  not  the  marvels  of  Merlin  nor  yet  the  dark 
sentences  of  profane  prophecies.  But,  first,  the 
plain  truth  of  God's  Word,  secondly,  the  invincible 
justice  of  the  everlasting  God,  and,  thirdly,  the 
ordinary  course  of  His  punishments  and  plagues 
are  my  assurance  and  grounds.  God's  Word 
threateneth  destruction  to  all  inobedient ;  His 
immutable  justice  must  require  the  same ;  the 
i93  13 


194  JOHN  KNOX 

ordinary  punishments  and  plagues  show  examples. 
What  man,  then,  can  cease  to  prophesy  ?  " l  To 
prophecy  of  this  sort  it  is  evident  that  anyone 
may  attain  in  his  degree  who  observes  the  course 
of  events  with  a  watchful  eye  and,  at  the  same 
time,  familiarises  himself  with  the  principles  of 
Providence,  as  these  are  revealed  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  But  it  is  in  a  more  modern  sense 
that  we  now  speak  of  Knox  as  a  prophet,  as 
Carlyle  has  done  in  his  remarkable  estimate  of 
his  fellow-countryman  in  Heroes  and  Hero-  Worship. 
By  a  prophet  we  mean  one  who  has  had  a  vision 
of  what  his  country  might  become  by  advancing 
along  a  certain  pathway,  and  who  has  with  eloquence 
and  effect  pointed  this  pathway  out.  In  this 
sense  Knox  holds  a  conspicuous  place  among 
modern  prophets  ;  for  it  is  certain  that  he  yearned 
over  his  native  country  with  an  intense  affection, 
saw  with  unrivalled  clearness  what  were  the  con- 
ditions of  its  true  welfare,  and  impressed  these 
in  memorable  words  on  the  mind  of  Scotland. 

When  in  those  days  a  man  of  prophetic  character 
thus  saw  a  vision  of  the  future,  it  was  apt  to  assume 
the  form  of  a  structure  of  which  the  foundation 
was  a  Confession  of  Faith,  the  walls  a  Book  of 
Discipline,  and  the  roof  or  pinnacle  a  Book  of 
1  Works,  iii.  168. 


HIS  IDEALS  ,95 

Common  Order.  These  were  the  products  to  which, 
at  the  epoch  of  the  Reformation,  the  efforts  of 
the  foremost  minds  were  directed  ;  and  we  have 
now  to  see  how  far  Knox  succeeded  in  shaping 
them  for  the  use  of  his  country. 


Confessions  of  faith  were  peculiar  products  of 
the  Reformation  era.  In  the  Early  Church,  indeed, 
immense  labour  had  been  expended  on  a  few 
brief  documents  of  the  same  order,  the  best  known 
of  which  are  the  Apostles'  Creed  and  the  Nicene 
Creed  ;  but  the  activity  of  the  Church  in  this 
direction  had  ceased  for  a  thousand  years  when, 
at  the  Reformation,  it  was  resumed  again  ;  and  now 
the  creeds  proved  to  be  of  much  greater  extent. 
Every  country  in  which  the  work  of  reformation 
made  any  considerable  progress  had  its  own  ;  but 
the  most  renowned  were  the  German,  entitled  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  the  Swiss,  called  the  First 
Helvetic  Confession,  and  the  Articles  of  the  Church 
of  England. 

The  primary  object  of  them  all  was  to  make 
known  the  new  revelation  of  the  truth  of  God 
which  had  visited  men's  souls,  the  recently  discovered 
art  of  printing  being  made  available  for  the  purpose 
of  diffusing  the  message  with  which  the  minds  of 


196  JOHN  KNOX 

those  who  issued  the  confessions  were  charged. 
Creeds  had  originally  arisen  out  of  the  practice 
of  permitting  converts  to  bear  witness  at  their 
baptism,  in  the  presence  of  the  onlookers,  to  the 
faith  they  had  embraced,  the  Apostles'  Creed  being 
nothing  else  than  the  formula  in  which  this  was  done. 
In  the  earliest  times,  there  is  reason  to  believe, 
this  was  regarded  as  a  privilege  and  an  honour 
by  those  who  thus  testified  to  the  world  what 
the  Saviour  had  done  for  them.  Certainly  at 
the  Reformation  it  was  a  strong  religious  impulse 
that  inspired  the  composition  of  confessions  :  they 
were  the  spontaneous  and  irresistible  expression 
of  strong  convictions.  And  obviously  this  ought 
to  be  a  characteristic  of  such  documents  always,  or 
they  have  ceased  to  deserve  their  name.  If  a 
Church  is  not  proud  of  its  confession,  but  only 
endures  it,  it  is  manifest  that  the  salt  has  lost  its 
savour. 

Another  object  aimed  at  was  the  contradiction 
of  false  doctrine.  It  may  be  due  to  the  inherent 
laziness  of  the  human  mind,  which  never  does  hard 
work  till  it  is  compelled  ;  but  it  is  an  acknowledged 
fact  that  the  Church  has  never  taken  a  firm  grasp 
of  truth  except  when  forced  to  do  so  by  the  emer- 
gence of  error.  All  the  creeds  bear  marks  of  this, 
for  they  abound  in  refutations  of  doctrines  believed 


HIS  IDEALS  197 

to  be  false  ;  and  against  this  foil  the  outline  of  the 
truth  is  made  distinct  At  the  Reformation  there 
was  a  huge  accumulation  of  error  to  be  got  rid  of, 
and  the  confessions  of  faith  attacked  it  with  energy. 
In  all  of  them  the  strongest  possible  language 
is  applied  to  the  Pope  and  all  his  works  ;  and  the 
way  of  salvation  by  free  grace  is  illustrated  by 
contrast  with  the  ceremonies  and  legalism  of  the 
old  system.  We  may  shrink  now  from  the  epithets 
employed  against  opponents  and,  indeed,  from  the 
argumentative  and  truculent. tone  in  which  it  was 
customary  at  that  time  to  write  ;  but  it  is  short- 
sighted not  to  perceive  that  this  was  to  a  large 
extent  only  a  fashion  of  the  age,  or  to  miss  the 
exquisite  flower  concealed  within  the  hard  and 
prickly  sheath  of  controversy. 

The  most  questionable  aspect  of  creeds  is  their 
application  as  tests.  Not  only  at  the  time  were 
they  used  to  separate  the  sheep  from  the  goats, 
but  they  have  been  handed  down  from  age  to  age, 
often  being  made  a  condition  of  the  holding  even 
of  secular  positions  and  always  of  the  holding  of 
sacred  offices.  This  is  defended,  at  least  for  posi- 
tions of  the  latter  sort,  on  the  ground  that  the 
Scripture  itself  is  not  a  sufficient  test,  as  its  words 
can  be  assented  to  by  those  holding  radically 
opposite  opinions.  It  is  argued  that  to  give  a 


198  JOHN  KNOX 

Church  compactness  there  must  be  an  absolutely 
definite  ground  on  which  all  the  members  stand. 
Money  will  not  be  given  for  the  propagation  of 
a  Church's  tenets,  unless  the  donors  have  a  sufficient 
guarantee  for  the  teaching  of  what  they  believe  to 
be  the  truth.  These  reasons  may  be  sufficient; 
but  there  are  certainly  serious  items  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  account.  When  thus  employed,  creeds 
perpetuate  the  differences  between  denominations, 
whereas  these  ought  to  learn  from  one  another 
and  thus  gradually  approximate  to  one  another's 
standpoints.  If  they  make  truth  permanent,  they 
make  error  permanent  also  ;  as  may  be  seen  in 
the  case  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  which,  provoked 
by  the  activity  of  the  Protestants  in  creed-con- 
struction, gave  to  its  own  doctrines  a  confessional 
form  at  the  Council  of  Trent  which  has  cut  off 
its  return  to  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel.  By 
all  Protestants  it  is  acknowledged  that  the  Bible 
is  the  supreme  standard,  but  there  is  a  constant 
temptation  to  read  the  Scriptures  by  the  light  of 
the  creed,  instead  of  vice  versa.  It  is  allowed  that 
the  creed  is  fallible  and  that  it  ought  to  be  changed, 
if  the  Spirit  of  God,  by  means  of  the  new  light 
of  Providence,  expands  and  purifies  the  Church's 
apprehensions  of  the  truth  ;  but,  in  point  of  fact, 
such  an  acknowledgment  is  usually  a  mere  formality, 


HIS  IDEALS  I99 

no  alteration  actually  taking  place,  and  the  creed 
being  virtually  accorded  the  same  immutability  as 
the  Scriptures.  In  our  own  day  a  new  terror  has 
been  added  to  life  by  the  discovery  that  churches 
may,  through  their  confessions  of  faith,  be  dragged 
into  courts  of  law,  where  the  most  sacred  elements 
of  doctrine  are  handled,  as  if  they  were  coal  and 
tallow,  by  judges  whose  acquaintance  with  the  history 
and  contents  of  the  confession  has  been  extem- 
porised and  may  be  neither  accurate  nor  sym- 
pathetic. Actual  revision,  at  intervals  not  too  far 
apart,  alone  can  justify  the  use  of  creeds  as  tests 
at  all.1 

As  has  been  already  indicated,  it  was  in  1560 
that  the  First  Scots  Confession  was  drawn  up,  at 
the  request  of  Parliament,  by  Knox  and  five  other 
divines,  all  of  whom,  like  himself,  bore  the  name 
of  John— Wynram,  Spottiswood,  Willock,  Douglas 
and  Row.  The  time  in  which  they  completed  their 
task — four  days — seems  miraculously  brief  when 
compared  with  that  required  in  our  day  to  effect 
the  slightest  revision  of  any  creed  ;  but  it  is  not  to 
be  forgotten  that  Knox  at  any  rate  was  a  practised 
hand.  He  had  co-operated  in  drawing  up  the 
Articles  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  in  Geneva  he 

1  Cf.,  RAINY,  The  Delivery  and  Development  of  Doctrine, 
ch.  vi. 


200  JOHN  KNOX 

had  made  a  rapid  sketch  of  a  creed  for  insertion 
in  the  Prayer  Book  of  the  English  congregation  ; 
and  he  was  doubtless  familiar  with  the  other  con- 
fessions already  adopted  by  the  Protestant  Churches 
of  the  Continent.  But,  besides,  the  composition  of 
such  manifestoes  was  a  favourite  occupation  of  the 
age  ;  and  the  matter  of  which  they  were  composed 
was  common  property. 

Still  the  work,  which  bears  very  manifestly  the 
stamp  of  the  genius  of  its  principal  author,  is  a 
thoroughly  original  composition,  characterized  in 
a  high  degree  by  the  spirit  of  conviction  and  en- 
thusiasm, which  must  always  be  reckoned  the 
principal  virtue  of  such  productions.  Thus,  its 
opening  words  are  :  "  Long  have  we  thirsted,  dear 
brethren,  to  have  notified  unto  the  world  the  sum 
of  that  doctrine  which  we  profess,  and  for  the  which 
we  have  sustained  infamy  and  danger."  This  is 
the  true  tone  of  the  confessor.  And  it  was  received 
in  a  similar  spirit  by  the  Parliament  which  adopted 
it ;  great  joy  being  expressed  at  the  birth  of  such 
a  testimony,  which,  it  was  confidently  believed, 
would  prove  a  blessing  to  the  nation. 

The  style  is  polemical  ;  not  only  the  Papists  being 
dealt  with  in  Knox's  trenchant  manner,  but  Ana- 
baptists and  other  contemporary  troublers  of  Israel 
being  roughly  handled,  and  even  ancient  heretics, 


HIS  IDEALS  201 

like  Arius,  Marcion  and  Nestorius,  receiving  a  wipe 
in  the  bygoing.  But  the  two  outstanding  features 
are  the  exaltation  of  the  Spirit  of  God  above  the 
authority  of  Fathers  and  Councils  and  the  exaltation 
of  Christ  above  the  means  of  grace.  The  individual 
is  summoned  to  hear  himself  the  voice  of  God  in 
the  Word,  instead  of  waiting  for  the  reports  of 
those  who  allege  that  they  have  heard  it  This 
responsibility  of  private  judgment  lifted  the  Protestant 
nations  to  a  new  level  of  manhood  ;  but  its  truly 
religious  character  is  never  to  be  overlooked :  it 
is  not  that  the  individual  is  egged-on  to  place  his 
own  opinions  above  all  authority  ;  but  he  is  en- 
couraged to  listen  in  humility  to  the  promptings 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  way  of  His  own  appoint- 
ment. In  like  manner  it  is  assumed  that  there  is 
for  the  individual  direct  access  to  God  through 
Christ  ;  the  notion  that  this  can  be  mediated  only 
through  the  priest  or  the  Church  or  the  means 
of  grace  being  alien  to  this  period  of  religious 
intuition.  Perhaps,  indeed,  means  are  placed  too 
much  in  the  background  ;  but,  if  so,  the  Confession 
errs  on  virtue's  side ;  for  means  of  grace  had  been 
put  in  Christ's  place;  and  they  always  tend  to 
become  obstructions  instead  of  helps. 

Knox    would   not  have    scrupled   to  impose  the 
Confession  as  a  test  on    his  own  generation;    but 


202  JOHN  KNOX 

he  does  not  bear  the  responsibility  of  binding  it  on 
subsequent  ones.  On  the  contrary,  he  set  a  flaming 
example  of  loyalty  to  conscience  in  rejecting  the 
formulas  of  his  predecessors,  when  these  did  not 
agree  with  the  present  teachings  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  and,  in  the  Confession  itself,  occur  the  following 
remarkable  words,  which  deserve  to  be  written  in 
letters  of  gold  :  "If  any  man  shall  note  in  this 
our  confession  any  article  or  sentence  repugning 
to  God's  Holy  Word,  may  it  please  him  of  his 
gentleness,  and  for  Christian  charity's  sake,  to 
admonish  us  of  the  same  in  writing  ;  and  we  of 
our  honour  and  fidelity  do  promise  unto  him 
satisfaction  from  the  mouth  of  God  (that  is,  from 
His  Holy  Scriptures),  or  else  reformation  of  that 
which  he  shall  prove  to  be  amiss."  l 

In  point  of  fact,  this  First  Scots  Confession 
was  superseded  by  the  Westminster  Confession, 
after  it  had  existed  for  less  than  a  hundred  years — 
a  period  which  may  be  regarded  as  about  the 
right  length  of  life  for  such  a  document.  Some, 
like  Edward  Irving,  have  been  inclined  to  consider 
it  superior  to  that  by  which  it  was  displaced  ;  but 
with  this  I  can  by  no  means  agree.  Knox's  pro- 
duction is,  indeed,  characterized  by  a  verve  and  a 
swing  which  the  Westminster  Confession  lacks  ;  but 
1  History,  ii.  96. 


IDEALS  203 

the  latter  is  far  superior  as  a  learned,  comprehensive 
and  well-balanced  statement 

If  asked,  however,  to  produce  a  specimen  of  what 
the  Reformation  Age  in  Scotland  could  do  in  the 
way  of  doctrinal  statement,  I  should  select,  not 
any  passage  of  the  Confession  of  Faith,  but  the 
following  brief  creed,  found  in  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Order — the  subject  of  the  next  chapter — and 
used  in  administering  the  ordinance  of  baptism ; 
although  it  must  be  admitted  that  it  may  not  be 
from  Knox's  own  pen  ;  and,  if  my  instinct  is  not 
mistaken,  it  reads  too  smoothly  to  be  his  in  the 
strictest  sense.  But  at  least  he  sanctioned  and 
used  it ;  and  it  may  stand  as  a  certificate  of  his 
theological  competency  : — 

"  The  Christian  faith,  whereof  now  ye  have  briefly 
heard  the  sum,  is  commonly  divided  into  twelve 
articles ;  but,  that  we  may  the  better  understand 
what  is  contained  in  the  same,  we  shall  divide  it 
into  four  principal  parts.  The  first  shall  concern 
God  the  Father,  the  second  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord,  the  third  shall  express  to  us  our  faith  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  the  fourth  and  last  shall  declare 
what  is  our  faith  concerning  the  Church,  and  of  the 
graces  of  God  freely  given  to  the  same. 

"First,   of  God  we   confess  three  things,  to  wit, 


204  JOHN  KNOX 

that  he  is  our  Father,  Almighty,  Maker  of  heaven 
and  earth. 

"  Our  Father  we  call  Him,  and  so  by  faith 
believe  Him  to  be,  not  so  much  because  He 
hath  created  us  (for  that  we  have  common  with 
the  rest  of  creatures,  who  yet  are  not  called  to 
that  honour  to  have  God  to  them  a  favourable 
Father) ;  but  we  call  Him  Father  by  reason  of 
His  free  adoption,  by  the  which  He  hath  chosen 
us  to  life  everlasting  in  Jesus  Christ.  And  this 
His  most  singular  mercy  we  prefer  to  all  things 
earthly  and  transitory ;  for  without  this  there  is 
to  mankind  no  felicity,  no  comfort  nor  final  joy  ; 
and,  having  this,  we  are  assured  that  by  the  same 
love  by  the  which  He  once  hath  freely  chosen 
us  He  shall  conduct  the  whole  course  of  our  life, 
that  in  the  end  we  shall  possess  that  immortal 
kingdom  that  He  hath  prepared  for  His  chosen 
children.  For  from  this  fountain  of  God's  free 
mercy  or  adoption  springeth  our  vocation,  our 
justification,  our  continual  sanctification,  and  finally 
our  glorification,  as  witness  the  Apostles. 

"  The  same  God  our  Father  we  confess  Almighty, 
not  only  in  respect  of  that  He  may  do,  but  in 
consideration  that  by  His  power  and  godly  wisdom 
are  all  creatures  in  heaven  and  earth  and  under 
the  earth  ruled,  guided  and  kept  in  that  order 


HIS  IDEALS  205 

that  His  eternal  will  and  knowledge  hath  appointed 
them. 

"  And  that  is  it  which  in  the  third  part  we 
do  confess,  that  He  is  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth  : 
that  is  to  say,  that  the  heaven  and  the  earth, 
and  the  contents  thereof,  are  so  in  His  hand 
that  there  is  nothing  done  without  His  knowledge 
neither  yet  against  His  will,  but  that  He  ruleth 
them  so  that  in  the  end  His  godly  name  shall  be 
glorified  in  them.  And  so  we  confess  and  believe, 
that  neither  the  devils  nor  yet  the  wicked  of  the 
world  have  any  power  to  molest  or  trouble  the 
chosen  children  of  God  but  in  so  far  as  it  pleaseth 
Him  to  use  them  as  instruments,  either  to  prove 
and  try  our  faith  and  patience  or  else  to  stir 
us  to  more  fervent  invocation  of  His  name  and 
to  continual  meditation  of  that  heavenly  rest  and 
joy  that  abideth  us  after  these  transitory  troubles. 
And  yet  shall  not  this  excuse  the  wicked,  because 
they  never  look  in  their  iniquity  to  please  God 
nor  yet  to  obey  His  will. 

"  In  Jesus  Christ  we  confess  two  distinct  and 
perfect  natures — to  wit,  the  eternal  Godhead  and 
the  perfect  Manhood  joined  together — so  that  we 
confess  and  believe,  that  that  eternal  Word,  which 
was  from  the  beginning  and  by  the  which  all  things 
were  created,  and  yet  are  conserved  and  kept  in  their 


206  JOHN  KNOX 

being,  did,  at  the  time  appointed  in  the  counsel 
of  His  heavenly  Father,  receive  our  nature  of  a 
Virgin,  by  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  So  that 
in  His  conception  we  acknowledge  and  believe 
that  there  is  nothing  but  purity  and  sanctification  ; 
yea,  even  insomuch  as  He  is  become  our  brother. 
For  it  behoved  Him  that  should  purge  others  from 
their  sins  to  be  pure  and  clean  from  all  spot  of 
sin  even  from  His  conception.  And,  as  we  confess 
and  believe  Him  conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost, 
so  do  we  confess  and  believe  Him  to  be  born 
of  a  Virgin  named  Mary,  of  the  tribe  of  Judah 
and  of  the  family  of  David,  that  the  promise  of 
God  and  the  prophecy  might  be  fulfilled,  to  wit, 
'That  the  seed  of  the  woman  should  break  down 
the  Serpent's  head,'  and  that  '  a  Virgin  should 
conceive  and  bear  a  child,  whose  name  should 
be  Emmanuel,  that  is,  God  with  us.'  The  name 
Jesus,  which  signifieth  a  Saviour,  was  given  unto 
Him  by  the  Angel,  to  assure  us  that  it  is  He 
alone  that  saveth  His  people  from  their  sins.  He 
is  called  Christ,  that  is  to  say,  Anointed,  by  reason 
of  the  offices  given  unto  Him  by  God  His  Father, 
to  wit,  that  He  alone  is  appointed  King,  Priest 
and  Prophet  King,  in  that  all  power  is  given 
to  Him  in  heaven  and  earth  ;  so  that  there  is  none 
other  but  He  in  heaven  nor  earth  that  hath  just 


HIS  IDEALS 


207 


authority  and  power  to  make  laws  to  bind  the 
consciences  of  men  ;  neither  yet  is  there  any  other 
that  may  defend  our  souls  from  the  bondage  of 
sin,  nor  yet  our  bodies  from  the  tyranny  of  man. 
And  this  He  doeth  by  the  power  of  His  Word, 
by  the  which  he  draweth  us  out  of  the  bondage 
and  slavery  of  Satan  and  maketh  us  to  reign 
over  sin ;  whilst  that  we  live  and  serve  our  God 
in  righteousness  and  holiness  of  our  life.  A  Priest, 
and  that  perpetual  and  everlasting,  we  confess 
Him,  by  reason  that  by  the  sacrifice  of  His  own 
body,  which  He  once  offered  up  upon  the  cross, 
He  hath  fully  satisfied  the  justice  of  his  Father 
in  our  behalf;  so  that  whosoever  seeketh  any 
means  besides  His  death  and  passion,  in  heaven 
or  in  earth,  to  reconcile  unto  them  God's  favour, 
they  do  not  only  blaspheme  but  also,  so  far  as  in 
them  is,  renounce  the  fruit  and  efficacy  of  that 
His  only  one  sacrifice.  We  confess  Him  to  be 
the  only  Prophet,  who  hath  revealed  unto  us  the 
whole  will  of  His  Father  in  all  things  pertaining 
to  our  salvation. 

"  This  our  Lord  Jesus  we  confess  to  be  the  only 
Son  of  God,  because  there  is  none  such  by  nature 
but  He  alone.  We  confess  Him  also  our  Lord, 
not  only  by  reason  we  are  His  creatures  but 
chiefly  because  He  hath  redeemed  us  by  His 


208  JOHN  KNOX 

precious  blood,  and  so  hath  gotten  just  dominion 
over  us,  as  over  the  people  whom  He  hath  delivered 
from  bondage  of  sin,  death,  hell  and  the  Devil,  and 
hath  made  us  kings  and  priests  to  God  His  Father. 

"  We  further  confess  and  believe,  that  the  same  our 
Lord  Jesus  was  accused  before  an  earthly  judge, 
Pontius  Pilate,  under  whom,  albeit  oft  and  divers 
times  He  was  pronounced  to  be  innocent,  He 
suffered  the  death  of  the  cross,  hanged  upon  a  tree 
betwixt  two  thieves  ;  which  death,  as  it  was  most 
cruel  and  vile  before  the  eyes  of  men,  so  was  it 
accursed  by  the  mouth  of  God  Himself,  saying, 
'  Cursed  is  everyone  that  hangeth  on  a  tree.'  And 
this  kind  of  death  sustained  He  in  our  person, 
because  He  was  appointed  of  God  His  Father 
to  be  our  pledge  and  He  that  should  bear  the 
punishment  of  our  transgressions.  And  so  we 
acknowledge  and  believe  that  He  hath  taken  away 
that  curse  and  malediction  that  hanged  on  us  by 
reason  of  our  sin.  He  verily  died,  rendering  up 
His  spirit  into  the  hands  of  His  Father,  after  that 
He  had  said,  '  Father,  into  Thy  hands  I  commend 
my  spirit.'  After  His  death,  we  confess,  His  body 
was  buried,  and  that  He  descended  into  hell.  But, 
because  he  was  the  Author  of  life,  yea,  the  very 
Life  itself,  it  was  impossible  that  He  should  be 
retained  under  the  dolours  of  death ;  and,  therefore, 


HIS  IDEALS  209 

the  third  day  He  rose  again  victor  and  conqueror 
of  death  and  hell  ;  by  the  which  His  resurrection 
He  hath  brought  life  again  into  the  world,  which 
He,  by  the  power  of  His  Holy  Spirit,  communicateth 
unto  His  lively  members  ;  so  that  now  unto  them 
corporal  death  is  no  death,  but  an  entrance  into  that 
blessed  life  wherein  our  Head,  Jesus  Christ,  is  now 
entered.  For,  after  that  He  had  sufficiently  proved 
His  resurrection  to  His  disciples  and  unto  such 
as  did  constantly  abide  with  Him  to  the  death,  He 
visibly  ascended  to  the  heavens,  and  was  taken  from 
the  eyes  of  men  and  placed  at  the  right  hand  of 
God  the  Father  Almighty,  where  presently  He 
remaineth  in  His  glory,  only  Head,  only  Mediator, 
and  only  Advocate  for  all  the  members  of  His 
body  ;  of  which  we  have  most  especial  comfort ; 
first,  for  that  by  His  ascension  the  heavens  are 
opened  unto  us  and  an  entrance  made  unto  us,  that 
boldly  we  may  appear  before  the  throne  of  our 
Father's  mercy  ;  and,  secondarily,  that  we  know 
that  this  honour  and  authority  is  given  unto  Jesus 
Christ,  our  Head,  in  our  name  and  for  our  profit 
and  utility.  For,  albeit  that  in  body  He  now  be 
in  the  heaven,  yet  by  the  power  of  His  Spirit  He 
is  present  here  with  us,  as  well  to  instruct  us  as 
to  comfort  and  maintain  us  in  all  our  troubles  and 
adversities,  from  the  which  He  shall  finally  deliver 


210  JOHN  KNOX 

His  whole  Church,  and  every  true  member  of  the 
same,  in  that  day  when  He  shall  visibly  appear 
again,  Judge  of  the  quick  and  the  dead. 

"  For  this,  finally,  we  confess  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  that,  as  He  was  seen  visibly  to  ascend,  and 
so  left  the  world,  as  touching  that  body  that  suffered 
and  rose  again,  so  do  we  constantly  believe  that 
He  shall  come  from  the  right  hand  of  His  Father, 
when  all  eyes  shall  see  Him,  yea,  even  those  that 
have  pierced  Him  ;  and  then  shall  be  gathered  as 
well  those  that  then  shall  be  found  alive  as  those 
that  before  have  slept.  Separation  shall  be  made 
betwixt  the  lambs  and  the  goats  :  that  is  to  say, 
betwixt  the  elect  and  the  reprobate.  The  one 
shall  hear  this  joyful  voice,  *  Come  ye,  the  blessed 
of  My  Father,  possess  the  kingdom  that  is  prepared 
for  you  before  the  beginning  of  the  world.'  The 
other  shall  hear  that  fearful  and  irrevocable  sentence, 
'  Depart  from  Me,  ye  workers  of  iniquity,  to  the 
fire  that  never  shall  be  quenched.'  And,  for  this 
cause,  this  day  in  the  Scriptures  is  called  '  the  day 
of  refreshing  '  and  '  of  the  revelation  of  ail  secrets,' 
because  that  then  the  just  shall  be  delivered  from 
all  miseries  and  be  possessed  in  the  fulness  of 
their  glory.  Contrariwise,  the  reprobate  shall  receive 
judgment  and  recompence  of  all  their  impiety,  be 
it  openly  or  secretly  wrought. 


HIS  IDEALS  2H 

"  As  we  constantly  believe  in  God  the  Father  and 
in  Jesus  Christ,  as  before  is  said,  so  do  we  assuredly 
believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom  we  confess  God, 
equal  with  the  Father  and  the  Son,  by  whose  working 
and  mighty  operation  our  darkness  is  removed,  our 
eyes  spiritual  are  illuminated,  our  souls  and  con- 
sciences sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  we  retained  in  the  truth  of  God,  even  to  our 
lives'  end.  And,  for  these  causes,  we  understand 
that  this  Eternal  Spirit,  proceeding  from  the  Father 
and  the  Son,  hath  in  the  Scriptures  divers  names. 
Sometimes  is  He  called  water,  by  reason  of  His  pur- 
gation, and  giving  strength  to  this  our  corrupt  nature 
to  bring  forth  good  fruit;  without  whom  this  our 
nature  should  utterly  be  barren,  yea,  it  should  utterly 
abound  in  all  wickedness.  Sometimes  the  same 
Spirit  is  called  fire,  by  reason  of  the  illumination 
and  burning  heat  of  fire  that  He  kindleth  in  our 
hearts.  The  same  Spirit  also  is  called  oil,  or  unction, 
by  reason  that  His  working  mollifieth  the  hardness 
of  our  hearts  and  maketh  us  receive  the  print  of 
that  image  of  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  only  we  are 
sanctified. 

"  We  constantly  believe,  that  there  is,  was  and  shall 
be,  even  to  the  coming  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  a  Church, 
which  is  holy  and  universal  ;  to  wit,  the  Communion 
of  Saints.  This  Church  is  holy,  because  it  receiveth 


212  JOHN  KNOX 

free  remission  of  sins,  and  that  by  faith  only  in 
the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ.  Secondly,  because,  it 
being  regenerate,  it  receiveth  the  spirit  of  sanctifica- 
tion  and  power  to  walk  in  newness  of  life  and  in 
good  works,  which  God  hath  prepared  for  His  chosen 
to  walk  in.  Not  that  we  think  the  justice  of  this 
Church,  or  of  any  member  of  the  same,  ever  was, 
is,  or  yet  shall  be,  so  full  and  perfect  that  it  needeth 
not  to  stoop  under  mercy ;  but,  because  the  im- 
perfections are  pardoned  and  the  justice  of  Jesus 
Christ  imputed  unto  such  as  by  true  faith  cleave 
unto  Him.  Which  Church  we  call  universal,  because 
it  consisteth  and  standeth  of  all  tongues  and  nations  ; 
yea,  of  all  estates  and  conditions  of  men  and 
women  whom  of  His  mercy  God  calleth  from  dark- 
ness to  light  and  from  the  bondage  and  thraldom 
of  sin  to  His  spiritual  service  and  purity  of  life. 
Unto  whom  also  He  communicateth  His  Holy  Spirit, 
giving  unto  them  one  faith,  one  head  and  sovereign 
Lord,  the  Lord  Jesus,  one  Baptism  and  right  use 
of  Sacraments ;  whose  hearts  also  He  kindleth 
together  in  love  and  Christian  concord. 

"  To  this  Church,  holy  and  universal,  we  acknow- 
ledge and  believe  notable  gifts  to  be  granted,  to 
wit,  remission  of  sins,  which  by  true  faith  must 
be  obtained  in  this  life,  resurrection  of  the  flesh, 
which  all  shall  have,  albeit  not  in  equal  condition , 


HIS  IDEALS  213 

for  the  reprobate  (as  before  is  said)  shall  rise  but 
to  fearful  judgment  and  condemnation,  and  the 
just  shall  rise  to  be  possessed  in  glory.  And  this 
resurrection  shall  not  be  an  imagination,  or  that 
one  body  shall  rise  for  another ;  but  every  man 
shall  receive  in  his  own  body  as  he  hath  deserved, 
be  it  good  or  evil.  The  just  shall  receive  the  life 
everlasting,  which  is  the  free  gift  of  God  given  and 
purchased  to  His  chosen  by  Jesus  Christ,  our  only 
Head  and  Mediator,  to  whom  with  the  Father  and 
the  Holy  Ghost,  be  all  honour  and  glory,  now  and 
ever. "  l 

»  Works,*.  317. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  BOOK  OF  COMMON  ORDER 

THE  prominence  given  by  Knox  and  the  Scot- 
tish Parliament  to  the  Confession  of  Faith 
is  an  eloquent  testimony  to  their  belief  in  truth 
as  the  force  to  change  into  its  own  image  the 
character  of  a  nation.  Perhaps,  indeed,  their  con- 
fidence that  pure  truth  will,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
produce  pure  lives  was  too  sanguine  ;  because  the 
history  of  Scotland  may  be  quoted  to  prove  that  a 
great  deal  of  excellent  truth  may  lie  at  the  bottom 
of  a  nation's  mind  in  a  condition  far  from  operative. 
On  the  whole,  however,  their  belief  in  the  power 
of  truth  to  produce  conduct  like  itself  is  far  more 
respectable  than  the  notion,  not  infrequently  ven- 
tilated nowadays,  that,  if  only  there  be  sincerity 
in  the  heart,  it  does  not  much  matter  what  are  the 
doctrines  in  the  mind  ;  for  this  amounts  to  a 
concession  that,  if  the  truth  be  not  found,  some- 
thing else  may  answer  just  as  well.  Knox  had  a 
214 


HIS  IDEALS  215 

profound  belief  that,  if  the  truth  about  God  and 
man  were  planted  in  the  intellect,  it  would  bring 
forth  fruits  of  both  religion  and  morality ;  his  aim 
being  to  fashion  a  nation  at  once  loyal  towards  God 
and  righteous  towards  man.  In  his  hopes  the 
godward  element  had  the  priority  ;  and,  therefore, 
it  will  be  best  to  begin  with  the  provision  which  he 
made  for  worship. 

The  practice  of  extemporaneous  prayer  in  the 
pulpit  is  so  general  in  the  Presby  rian  Churches, 
and  has  prevailed  so  long,  that  many  people  are 
unaware  that  it  does  not  go  back  to  the  beginning. 
But,  at  the  Reformation,  the  Scottish  Church  pos- 
sessed forms  of  worship  no  less  than  the  other 
Churches  which  sprang  into  existence  at  the  same 
time,  and  these  must  have  been  of  special  utility 
in  the  prevailing  scarcity  of  preachers  ;  because 
Protestant  worship  was  thereby  rendered  possible 
in  many  places  where  a  regular  ministry  was  not 
yet  procurable.  The  Book  of  Common  Order  was 
never,  indeed,  in  the  strict  sense,  a  liturgy — that 
is,  a  prescribed  form  from  which  no  departure  was 
permissible.  On  the  contrary,  it  embodied  in- 
structions, at  sundry  places,  that  the  printed  prayer 
should  be  used,  "  or  another  like  it " ;  and  at  certain 
places  the  conductor  of  the  worship  was  invited  to 


2i6  JOHN  KNOX 

trust  to  his  own  inspirations  at  the  moment  and 
to  his  acquaintance  with  the  circumstances  of  the 
case.  Thus,  its  most  appropriate  name  would  have 
been  a  Directory  for  Public  Worship — the  title  of 
the  book,  compiled  by  the  Westminster  divines,  by 
which  it  was  superseded. 

It  would  appear,  therefore,  that  from  the  first 
a  prayer-book  was  employed  in  Scotland  more  as 
a  help  to  those  of  meaner  capacity,  it  being  taken 
for  granted  that,  as  competent  men  were  secured, 
the  printed  form  would  be  dropped,  those  who 
led  the  devotions  of  the  congregations  trusting  to 
their  own  knowledge  of  the  situation  and  to  the 
fervour  supplied  at  the  moment.  And,  on  the  whole, 
this  has  been  the  conception  of  public  worship  to 
which  Scotsmen  have  given  their  suffrages  ever  since. 
The  attempt  of  an  English  monarch  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  to  impose  an  alien  form  told  heavily 
against  a  liturgy  in  the  popular  mind ;  and  of 
course  during  the  period  of  the  Covenant  the 
preachers  on  the  moors  were  not  likely  to  pray 
by  book.  The  question  is,  however,  an  open  one, 
and  the  Scottish  Church  is  quite  entitled,  in  this 
as  in  other  matters,  to  try  experiments.  Ministers 
are  often  deeply  dissatisfied  with  their  own  attempts 
at  public  prayer  ;  and,  as  culture  advances,  the 
lack  of  form  and  beauty  in  extemporaneous  utter- 


HIS  IDEALS  217 

ances  will  probably  be  increasingly  felt.  In  all  the 
larger  Presbyterian  Churches  of  Scotland  efforts 
have  recently  been  made  to  supply  ministers 
with  aids  to  public  devotion  ;  but  the  fact  that 
these  have  proceeded  from  self-constituted  committees 
and  not  from  the  authoritative  courts  seems  to 
prove  that  the  Church  is  not  yet  prepared  to 
move  in  the  matter.  It  may  eventually  turn  out 
that  the  original  practice  is  the  one  in  which  the 
Church  of  the  future  will  rest — to  have  forms 
which  may  be  strictly  adhered-to  on  occasions  of 
special  dignity  or  solemnity,  and  may  be  resorted- 
to  by  the  officiating  minister  when  he  is  so  dis- 
posed, but  from  which  departure  is  not  only  allowed 
but  recommended,  as  often  as  special  prayer  is  called 
for  by  novel  circumstances  or  as  the  tide  of  devotion 
flows  spontaneously  in  the  preacher's  heart. 

There  is  some  evidence  that  the  English  Book 
of  Common  Order,  issued  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI., 
was  occasionally  employed  in  the  earliest  stages  of 
the  Reformation  in  Scotland  ;  and  there  is  nothing 
surprising  in  this  taking  place  at  a  time  when  Knox 
himself  was  officiating  as  a  minister  of  the  Church 
of  England.  For  the  English  congregation  of  which 
he  was  minister  at  Frankfort,  Knox  prepared  a 
liturgy,  or  used  one  prepared  by  others  ;  and  in  his 
congregation  of  exiles  at  Geneva  he  used  this  or  a 


218  JOHN  KNOX 

modification  of  it ;  it  being  printed  with  an  express 
intimation  that  it  had  obtained  the  sanction  of  John 
Calvin,  on  whose  own  order  of  worship  in  the  same 
city  it  was,  indeed,  modelled.  For  some  years  after 
Knox's  final  return  to  his  native  land  this  Order 
of  Geneva,  as  it  was  called  from  the  circumstance 
that  it  had  been  compiled  and  used  in  that  city, 
was  adopted  in  Scotland  ;  and  it  formed  the  basis 
of  worship  for  a  long  time.  In  1564  an  enlarge- 
ment took  place,  and  every  minister,  exhorter 
and  reader  was  instructed  by  the  General  Assembly 
to  possess  himself  of  a  copy  and  use  it  in  prayers, 
marriage  and  administration  of  the  sacraments  ;  and 
this  was  frequently  issued  in  subsequent  years,  with 
slight  modifications.1 

To  the  Order  of  Geneva,  when  thus  published 
in  Scotland,  two  important  appendices  were  added 
— Calvin's  Catechism  and  the  Psalms  of  David  in 
metre. 

The  practice  of  writing  catechisms  for  the  young 
was  general  among  the  Churches  of  the  Reformation, 
going  side  by  side  with  the  composition  of  con- 
fessions of  faith  ;  and  the  greatest  men  of  the  age, 
like  Luther  and  Calvin,  did  not  disdain  to  stoop 

1  For  full  information  on  all  such  questions  see  C.  G.  McCRiE, 
Public  Worship  of  Presbyterian  Scotland. 


HIS  IDEALS  219 

to  this  humble  task  ;  herein  showing  their  wisdom  ; 
for  the  influence  is  incalculable  which  religious  truth 
exerts  on  the  subsequent  life  when  it  has  been 
imprinted  on  the  mind  in  early  years.  Luther's 
Catechism  is  one  of  the  classics  of  Germany  ;  and 
of  Calvin's  John  Knox  expressed  the  opinion  that 
it  was  the  best  which  had  ever  been  produced. 
The  Westminster  Assembly's  Catechism,  which 
displaced  that  of  Calvin,  is  acknowledged  to  have 
been  for  hundreds  of  years  one  of  the  principal 
factors  in  the  formation  of  the  Scoto-Irish  character, 
not  only  in  the  native  homes  of  the  race,  but  in 
the  new  countries  which  this  race  has  helped 
to  build-up  in  distant  parts  of  the  world. 
The  general  aim  of  all  the  catechisms  of  the 
Reformation  was  to  inscribe  on  the  memory  of 
the  young  the  Creed,  the  Ten  Commandments,  and 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  as  embodying  the  sum  of  saving 
knowledge.  This  arrangement  does  not  appear  so 
palpably  on  the  face  of  the  Westminster  Assembly's 
Catechism  ;  but  the  question  and  answer  for  which 
the  latter  is  so  famous,  "  What  is  man's  chief  end  ? 
Man's  chief  end  is  to  glorify  God  and  to  enjoy 
Him  for  ever,"  are  substantially  borrowed  from 
Calvin's  Catechism. 

The  use  of  singing  in  public  worship  was  a  point 
on   which  opinions  were  divided   at  the  period    of 


220  JOHN  KNOX 

the  Reformation  ;  but  happily  Knox  and  those  who 
followed  him  leaned  to  the  positive  side,  though  they 
only  went  so  far  as  to  place  it  among  the  secondary 
elements  of  worship.  Naturally  the  Book  of  Psalms 
was  first  turned-to  for  the  materials  ;  and  in  the 
congregation  of  the  refugees  at  Geneva  men  of  talent 
were  found,  among  whom  the  names  of  Sternhold 
and  Hopkins  have  survived,  to  translate  the  sacred 
lyrics  into  singable  verse.  In  the  Order  of  Geneva, 
as  it  was  issued  at  Geneva  in  1556,  fifty-one  Psalms 
appeared,  but,  after  this,  the  work  of  translation 
went  on,  and  the  services  of  new  versifiers  were 
secured,  among  whom  William  Kethe  and  John 
Craig,  Knox's  colleague  in  Edinburgh,  are  deserv- 
ing of  mention,  till  in  the  edition,  already  referred  to,  of 
the  prayer-book  published  in  1 564  the  whole  hundred- 
and-fifty  appeared,  each  with  its  own  fixed  tune. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  value  of 
this  contribution  to  Scottish  religious  life.  In  every 
generation  since,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Scotsmen 
and  their  descendants  in  other  countries  have 
practically  known  the  Psalms  by  heart  and  thus 
have  had  the  opportunity  of  continually  tasting  the 
literary  charm  and  extracting  the  spiritual  essence 
of  one  of  the  choicest  and  most  varied  of  the  books 
of  the  Bible.  In  the  eighteenth  century  there  were 
added  to  the  materials  of  praise,  under  the  name  of 


HIS  IDEALS  221 

the  Paraphrases,  sixty-seven  translations  from  other 
parts  of  Scripture  ;  and  in  the  nineteenth  century 
the  use  of  hymns  was  introduced  on  such  an 
extensive  scale  as  to  threaten  to  supersede  the 
Psalms.  At  present  the  Church  is  embarrassed 
with  its  riches  in  the  materials  of  praise ;  and 
measures  of  compression  will  no  doubt  require  to 
be  taken  in  the  future  ;  but  a  door  of  entrance  will 
still  have  to  be  kept  open  for  the  new  births  of 
sacred  poetical  inspiration  which  time  may  bring 
forth.  Still  the  Psalms  will  not  lose  their  position 
of  preeminence.  At  the  time  of  the  Westminster 
Assembly  the  old  version  was  largely  superseded  by 
that  of  Rous  ;  and  this,  in  its  turn,  will  no  doubt 
have  to  give  place  to  a  better.  Praise  has  of  late 
been  securing  an  increasing  proportion  of  the  time 
spent  in  public  worship,  the  sermon  being  thereby 
shortened  ;  but  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  Psalms 
and  Paraphrases  are  replete  with  doctrinal  instruction  ; 
the  hymn-book  being  sometimes  not  inaptly  called 
the  layman's  confession  of  faith. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  among  the  reasons  why 
the  Scottish  Book  of  Common  Order  lost  its  hold 
so  soon  and  so  completely  on  the  nation,  while  the 
English  one  experienced  precisely  the  opposite  fate, 
must  be  reckoned  its  own  literary  inferiority.  It 
was  not  composed  with  the  same  diligent  use  of 


222  JOHN  KNOX 

ancient  material,  gathered  from  the  liturgies  of  the 
pre-Reformation  period  ;  its  spirit  is  harsh  and 
denunciatory ;  and  its  language  is  lacking  in  music 
and  felicity.  The  responses  of  the  congregation  are 
deliberately  excluded  ;  and  many  of  the  prayers 
are  wearisomely  lengthy  ;  one  prayer,  for  example, 
to  be  used  at  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick,  extending 
to  nearly  six  pages.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is 
embodied  in  the  Baptismal  Service  a  brief  sum  of 
Christian  truth  which  is  of  rare  literary  and  theo- 
logical merit ; *  and  there  are  other  materials  not  a 
few  to  which  it  will  be  well  to  recur  when  any  new  di- 
rectory for  public  worship  is  authoritatively  undertaken. 
One  feature  on  which  members  of  the  Church  of 
England  often  dwell  with  fervour  in  their  own 
Prayer  Book  is  the  Christian  Year  ;  but  this  is  entirely 
absent  from  the  Scottish  one.  In  making  a  clean 
sweep  of  the  saints'  days  of  the  old  Church,  Knox 
and  his  coadjutors  abolished  also  the  scheme  by 
which  the  Church  was  reminded,  by  the  revolution 
of  the  seasons,  of  the  great  events  in  the  life  of 
the  Saviour,  such  as  His  Birth,  His  Passion,  His 
Resurrection  and  His  Ascension.  The  motive  of 
this  sacrifice  may  have  been  sufficient .  at  the  time  ; 
but  it  is  a  question  whether  now,  when  the  worship 
of  saints  and  angels  is  not  likely  to  come  back,  this 
1  Quoted  in  preceding  chapter. 


HIS  IDEALS  223 

loss  ought  not  to  be  recovered.  In  the  service- 
books  of  the  Church  of  Rome  there  is  embodied, 
not  only  the  Christian  Year,  but  the  history  of 
the  Christian  Church.  This  is  associated  with  the 
worship  of  saints,  the  notices  of  whom  are  full  of 
elements  that  are  legendary  and  unhistorical.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  mind  of  the  ordinary  Protestant 
is  nearly  a  blank  as  regards  the  entire  period  from 
the  year  100  to  1500  A.D.  ;  and  it  is  well  worthy  of 
consideration  in  what  way  the  examples  of  martyrs 
and  reformers  can  be  brought  to  bear  on  the  minds 
of  the  people  in  the  worship  of  the  Church.  Of  the 
lives  of  the  heroes  of  religion  to  the  close  of  the 
Canon  of  Scripture  worshippers  obtain  an  extra- 
ordinary grasp  through  the  public  reading  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments  ;  many  a  shepherd  on 
the  hill  and  peasant  in  her  cottage  being  more 
familiar  with  every  detail  than  is  the  best  classical 
scholar  with  the  literature  of  Greece  and  Rome ; 
but  with  the  history  of  the  twenty  centuries  created 
by  Christianity  the  average  Presbyterian  is  woefully 
ignorant ;  and  yet  these  also  abound  with  figures 
and  scenes  acquaintance  with  which  would  be 
"  profitable  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction 
in  righteousness,  that  the  man  of  God  may  be 
perfect,  throughly  furnished  unto  all  good  works." 
Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  this  comparatively 


224  JOHN  KNOX 

secondary  portion  of  Knox's  labours  raises  many 
questions  the  solution  of  which  belongs  to  the  future 
of  our  country.  But  this  is  characteristic  of  such  a 
spirit  as  he  was ;  and  we  cannot  remind  ourselves 
often  enough  that  the  tasks  of  the  Scottish  Church 
are  still  far  from  accomplished.  They  are,  indeed, 
only  beginning  ;  and  all  forms  of  belief  and  practice 
are  subject  to  modification  and  development.  The 
supreme  standard  remains  the  same  ;  but  it  is  not 
a  restricting  and  hampering  but  an  emancipating 
force.  And  all  arrangements  deduced  from  it  are 
subject  to  improvement  under  the  teaching  of 
experience  and  the  experiments  of  time.  It  would 
be  a  poor  way  of  honouring  a  man  who  grappled  so 
fearlessly  with  the  problems  of  his  own  age  and 
dealt  so  courageously  with  the  authority  of  the  past 
to  erect  him  into  an  oracle  from  whose  utterances 
it  is  considered  impious  to  depart  ;  but  it  is  far 
more  foolish  to  make  the  mere  negligence  of  sub- 
sequent generations  a  reason  for  not  attempting  to 
complete  the  tasks  which  he  initiated  but  had  not 
time  to  perfect. 


CHAPTER    III, 

THE   BOOK   OF   DISCIPLINE 

AS  the  fruits  of  the  Confession  of  Faith  towards 
God  were  provided — for  in  the  Book  of 
Common  Order,  so  were  those  towards  man  in  the 
Book  of  Discipline.  As  has  been  already  remarked, 
the  latter  document  originated  in  the  same  year 
as  the  Confession  of  Faith — 1560 — and  proceeded 
from  the  same  authors,  who,  in  their  preface, 
introduce  themselves  in  the  following  terms  : 

"  To  the  Great  Council  of  Scotland,  now  admitted 
to  the  regiment  by  the  providence  of  God,  and  by 
the  common  consent  of  the  estates  thereof,  your 
Honours'  humble  servitors  and  ministers  of  Christ 
Jesus  within  the  same  wish  grace,  mercy  and 
peace  from  God  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  with  the  perpetual  increase  of  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

"  From  your  Honours  we  received  a  charge  dated 
at  Edinburgh,  29  April,  in  the  year  of  God 
225  IS 


146  JOHN  KNOX 

1560,  requiring  and  commanding  us  in  the  name 
of  the  Eternal  God,  as  we  will  answer  in  His 
presence,  to  commit  to  writing  and  in  a  book  to 
deliver  unto  your  Wisdoms  our  judgments  touching 
the  reformation  of  religion,  which  heretofore  in 
this  realm,  as  in  others,  has  been  utterly  corrupted. 
Upon  the  receipt  thereof  so  many  of  us  as  were 
in  this  town  did  convene,  and  in  unity  of  mind 
do  offer  unto  your  Wisdoms  these  heads  subsequent 
for  common  order  and  uniformity  to  be  observed 
in  this  realm  concerning  doctrine,  administration 
of  sacraments,  election  of  ministers,  provision  for 
their  sustentation,  ecclesiastical  discipline  and  policy 
of  the  Kirk  :  most  humbly  requiring  your  Honours, 
that,  as  ye  look  for  participation  with  Christ  Jesus, 
that  neither  ye  admit  anything  which  God's  plain 
Word  shall  not  approve,  neither  yet  that  ye  shall 
reject  such  ordinances  as  equity,  justice  and  God's 
Word  do  specify  :  for,  as  we  will  not  bind  your 
Wisdoms  to  our  judgments  further  than  we  be 
able  to  prove  the  same  by  God's  plain  Scriptures, 
so  must  we  most  humbly  crave  of  you,  even  as 
ye  will  answer  in  God's  presence,  before  whom 
both  ye  and  we  must  appear  to  render  account 
of  all  our  deeds,  that  ye  repudiate  nothing  for 
pleasure  nor  affection  of  men,  which  ye  be  not  able 
to  improve  by  God's  written  and  revealed  Word." 


HIS  IDEALS  227 

The  treatise  thus  introduced  is  in  some  respects 
the  most  remarkable  document  of  that  age  in 
Scotland  ;  and  to  this  day  it  remains  readable 
in  the  highest  degree,  being  written  with  extra- 
ordinary vivacity  and  directness.  One  would  be 
inclined  to  say  that  nothing  else  bears  quite  so 
distinctly  the  impress  of  Knox's  genius.  It  comes 
away  in  a  single  gush,  and  it  causes  a  dazzling 
image  of  national  prosperity  to  rise  before  the 
mind.  Unfortunately  it  was  only  an  ideal,  never 
destined  to  be  changed  into  actuality.  But  for 
this  Knox  was  not  to  blame.  And  ever  since 
it  has  remained,  and  it  will  remain,  as  a  finger 
pointing  forward  to  possibilities  still  to  be  realised. 
An  omission  which  must  strike  every  reader  is 
the  almost  total  absence  of  the  Presbyterian  system 
of  Church  government.  But  for  this  the  conditions 
were  not  yet  ripe  ;  and  this  was  amply  provided 
for  in  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline — a  monument 
of  the  genius  of  Melville,  dating  from  1578 — which 
in  some  minor  respects  repealed  the  provisions  of 
this  First  Book  of  Discipline,  but  was  in  general 
intended  only  to  expand  and  confirm  its  principles. 

The  Book  of  Discipline  is  not  a  manual  of 
morals,  as  the  Confession  of  Faith  is  of  doctrine  ; 
although  it  deals  largely  with  the  character  and 
conduct  of  the  members  and  especially  the  office- 


228  JOHN  KNOX 

bearers  of  the  Church,  as  might  be  gathered  from 
its  very  name.  On  discipline  proper,  in  the  sense 
of  ecclesiastical  censure,  it  contains  two  or  three 
chapters  ;  the  contents  of  which  signalise  a  prominent 
feature  of  the  order  which  Knox  and  his  assistants 
were  setting  up  in  Scotland.  The  ecclesiastical 
officials  were  intended  to  take  a  very  sharp  oversight 
of  the  morals  of  the  community.  "  Blasphemy, 
adultery,  murder,  perjury,  and  other  crimes  capital, 
worthy  of  death,  ought  not  properly  to  fall  under 
the  censure  of  the  Church  ;  because  all  such  open 
transgressors  of  God's  law  ought  to  be  taken  away 
by  the  civil  sword.  But  drunkenness,  excess,  be  it 
in  apparel  or  be  it  in  eating  or  drinking,  fornication, 
oppression  of  the  poor  by  exactions,  deceiving  of 
them  in  buying  or  selling  by  wrong  weights  or 
measures,  wanton  words  and  licentious  living  tending 
to  slanders,  do  properly  appertain  to  the  Church  of 
God,  to  punish  the  same  as  God's  Word  com- 
mandeth." 

The  handling  of  such  offenders  by  the  officials  of 
the  Church  was  to  be  slow  and  circumspect,  a  door 
of  repentance  being  always  left  open  as  long  as 
possible ;  but  the  punishments  were  intended  to 
be  severe  in  case  of  obstinacy ;  the  culminating  one 
being  excommunication  ;  "  after  which  sentence  may 
no  person,  the  wife  and  family  of  the  culprit  only 


HIS  IDEALS  229 

excepted,  have  any  kind  of  conversation  with  him  ; 
except  it  be  at  the  licence  and  commandment  of 
the  ministry  for  his  conversion  ;  that  he,  by  such 
mean  confounded,  seeing  himself  abhorred  of  the 
faithful  and  godly,  may  have  occasion  to  repent 
and  so  be  saved."  These  arrangements  were  in- 
tended to  extend  to  all  ranks  and  conditions,  no 
respect  of  persons  being  allowed  :  "  To  discipline 
must  all  estates  within  the  realm  be  subject,  if  they 
offend,  as  well  the  rulers  as  they  that  are  ruled  ; 
yea,  and  the  preachers  themselves,  as  well  as  the 
poorest  within  the  Church."  In  another  place  it 
is  added  :  "  Not  only  may  the  life  and  manners 
of  the  ministers  come  under  censure  and  judgment 
of  the  Church,  but  also  of  their  wives,  children  and 
family  :  judgment  must  be  taken  that  he  neither 
live  riotously  nor  yet  avariciously ;  yea,  respect 
must  be  had  how  they  spend  the  stipend  appointed 
to  their  living.  If  a  reasonable  stipend  be  appointed, 
and  they  live  avariciously,  they  must  be  admonished 
to  live  so  as  they  receive  ;  for,  as  excess  and  super- 
fluity is  not  tolerable  in  a  minister,  so  is  avarice 
and  the  careful  solicitude  of  money  and  gear  utterly 
to  be  condemned  in  Christ's  servants." 

In  addition  to  this  censureship  from  other  office- 
bearers, the  ministers  were  to  hold  a  weekly  meeting, 
at  which  they  were  to  review  one  another's  conduct, 


230  JOHN  KNOX 

under  warning  that,  if  they  spared  from  fear  or 
favour  to  point  out  one  another's  faults,  they  would 
incur  the  righteous  judgment  of  God.  This  idea 
appears  to  have  been  borrowed  from  the  Church  of 
Geneva  ;  and  it  suggests  that  the  good  men  were 
perhaps  a  little  defective  in  the  sense  of  humour. 
With  this  entire  section,  indeed,  of  the  Reformers' 
plans  there  is  connected  to  the  modern  mind  a 
suggestion  of  espionage  and  disregard  of  the  rights 
of  personality.  In  practice  it  has  long  been  curtailed 
and  modified.  Yet  it  is  impossible  to  look  at  the 
state  of  the  country  at  the  present  time  without 
seeing  that  we  have  gone  to  the  opposite  extreme 
in  the  recognition  of  the  freedom  of  the  subject, 
and  this  not  to  the  country's  advantage.  There  is 
a  large  class  not  fit  to  make  a  good  use  of  as  much 
personal  liberty  as  is  allowed.  The  members  of  this 
class  fill  our  prisons  and  workhouses  at  the  expense 
of  the  public  or,  if  occupying  lodgings  that  are 
paid  for,  keep  up  habits  of  savage  or  nomadic  life, 
converting  their  houses  into  centres  of  disease  and 
infection  both  physical  and  moral.  All  who  are 
acquainted  with  the  facts  about  this  class  are 
aware  that  drastic  measures,  not  unlike  those 
recommended  by  John  Knox,  are  still  required  for 
the  protection  of  society. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  proper  name  for 


HIS  IDEALS  33I 

the  Book  of  Discipline  would  have  been  the  Book 
of  Policy,1  because  its  proposals  extend  far  beyond 
discipline  proper  to  subjects  for  which  "  policy  "  is 
now  the  proper  term.  In  the  book  itself  this  word 
appears,  however,  to  be  employed  in  a  narrower 
sense,  to  denote  the  external  arrangements  for  the 
various  functions  of  the  Church,  such  as  worship, 
marriage  and  the  like.2  Thus,  not  only  was  the 
Sunday  to  be  observed  with  preaching,  the  catechis- 
ing of  children  and  the  administration  of  the 
sacraments — the  Lord's  Supper  being  celebrated  four 
times  a  year — but  on  week-days  in  large  towns  there 
was  to  be  daily  sermon,  or  else  the  reading  of 
Common  Prayers  with  the  Scriptures  ;  and  in  smaller 
places  at  least  one  week-day  service,  during  which 
business  was  to  be  suspended.  The  Scripture  was 
to  be  read  in  church  in  order — "that  is,  that  some 
one  book  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament  be 
begun  and  orderly  read  to  the  end.  And  the  same 
we  judge  of  preaching,  where  the  minister  for  the 
most  part  remaineth  in  one  place  ;  for  this  skipping 
and  divagation  from  place  to  place  of  the  Scripture, 
be  it  in  reading  or  be  it  in  preaching,  we  judge  not 
so  profitable  to  edify  the  Church  as  the  continual 
following  of  one  text."  In  private  houses  the  heads 

1  McCRiE,  The  Worship  of  Presbyterian  Scotland, 
1  History i  »•  237- 


232  JOHN  KNOX 

of  families  were  exhorted  to  use  the  Common  Prayers 
morning  and  evening  ;  and,  under  pain  of  discipline, 
they  were  commanded  to  instruct  the  young  beneath 
their  roof,  in  order  that  these  might  be  fit  for  ad- 
mission to  the  communion  ;  none  being  considered 
fit  for  this  ordinance  who  were  not  familiar  with 
at  least  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Ten  Commandments, 
and  the  Creed.  Marriages  were  to  take  place  in 
Church  and  on  Sunday ;  and  young  people  were 
not  permitted  to  marry  without  the  consent  of  their 
parents,  although,  if  the  parents'  objections  were 
unreasonable,  the  young  people  could  appeal  to  the 
Church.  Burials  in  Church  were  not  permitted  ;  and 
there  was  to  be  no  religious  service  at  funerals — 
an  arrangement  considered  necessary  to  counteract 
the  superstitions  of  Popery,  but  surely  erring  itself 
as  far  on  the  opposite  side.  One  interesting  service, 
too  soon  allowed  to  fall  into  desuetude,  was  the  weekly 
Prophesying,  at  which  all  and  sundry  were  encour- 
aged to  propound  their  difficulties  or  give  their 
comments  on  the  passage  selected.  This  was  not 
unlike  a  modern  American  prayer-meeting ;  and 
it  revealed  and  developed  the  spiritual  gifts  of  the 
laity  to  the  general  advantage.  "  For  no  man  may 
be  permitted  to  live  as  best  pleaseth  him  within 
the  Church  of  God  ;  but  every  man  must  be  con- 
strained, by  fraternal  admonition  and  correction 


HIS  IDEALS  233 

to   bestow   his   labours,   when   of  the    Church   they 
are  required,  to  the  edification  of  others."  l 

So  much  of  the  Book  of  Discipline  is  taken  up 
with  the  qualifications,  the  appointment  and  the 
functions  of  the  various  office-bearers  of  the  Church 
that  these  may  appear  to  be  its  principal  topics. 

Elders  and  deacons  were  to  be  elected  by  the 
free  votes  of  the  members,  but  only  for  one  year, 
"  lest  that  by  long  continuance  of  such  officers  men 
presume  upon  the  liberty  of  the  Church.  It  hurts 
not  that  one  man  be  retained  in  office  more  years 
than  one,  so  that  he  be  appointed  yearly  by 
common  and  free  election."  But  deacons  could 
be  re-elected  only  after  an  interval  of  three  years. 
The  office  of  the  elders  consisted  in  "judging  and 
decerning  of  causes ;  in  giving  of  admonition  to 
the  licentious  liver ;  in  having  of  respect  to  the 
manners  and  conversation  of  all  men  within  their 
charge  "  ;  of  the  deacons  "  to  receive  the  rents  and 
gather  the  alms  of  the  Church,  to  keep  and  dis- 
tribute the  same.  They  may  assist  in  judgment 
with  the  ministers  and  elders,  and  may  be  admitted 
to  read  in  the  assembly,  if  they  be  required  and 
be  found  able  thereto." 

Naturally  a  large  amount  of  space  is  devoted 
1  History,  ii.  245. 


234  JOHN  KNOX 

to  ministers.  "  In  a  Kirk  reformed  or  tending  to 
reformation  none  ought  to  presume  either  to  teach 
or  minister  the  sacraments  till  that  orderly  they  be 
called  to  the  same."  Those  who  presumed  to  take 
these  functions,  especially  the  latter  of  them,  upon 
themselves  without  such  qualification  were  worthy 
of  death.1  No  doubt  this  severe  judgment  was 
aimed  first  of  all  at  sectaries,  like  the  Anabaptists, 
but  it  was  extended  also  to  those  who  had  received 
no  licence  but  that  of  a  corrupt  Church :  "  The 
papistical  priests  have  neither  power  nor  authority 
to  minister  the  sacraments  of  Christ  Jesus  ;  because 
that  in  their  mouth  is  not  the  sermon  of  exhortation. 
And,  therefore,  to  them  must  straight  inhibition 
be  made,  notwithstanding  any  usurpation  which  they 
have  had  in  that  behalf  in  the  time  of  blindness.  It 
is  neither  the  clipping  of  their  crowns,  the  crossing 
of  their  fingers,  nor  the  blowing  of  the  dumb  dogs 
called  the  bishops,  neither  yet  the  laying  on  of 
their  hands,  that  maketh  them  true  ministers  of 
Christ  Jesus.  But  the  Spirit  of  God,  inwardly  first 
moving  the  hearts  to  seek  Christ's  glory  and  the 
profit  of  His  Church,  and  thereafter  the  nomination 
of  the  people,  the  examination  of  the  learned  and 
public  admission,  as  before  is  said,  make  men 
lawful  ministers  of  the  Word  and  sacraments.  We 
1  History,  i.  274, 


HIS  IDEALS  235 

speak  of  an  ordinary  vocation,  where  Churches  are 
reformed  or  at  least  tend  to  reformation,  and  not 
of  that  which  is  extraordinary,  when  God,  by  Himself 
and  by  His  only  power,  raiseth  up  to  the  ministry 
such  as  best  pleaseth  His  wisdom." 

Ample  directions  are  given  as  to  the  calling, 
examining  and  ordination  of  ministers.  "  It  apper- 
taineth  to  the  people,  and  to  every  several  con- 
gregation, to  elect  their  own  minister."  "  For 
altogether  this  is  to  be  avoided  that  any  man  be 
violently  intruded  or  thrust  in  upon  any  congrega- 
tion." Yet,  in  the  event  of  the  election  not  being 
completed  in  forty  days,  the  authority  of  the  Church 
could  step  in  and  carry  out  the  appointment  ;  though 
evidently  even  in  such  a  case  the  feelings  and  wishes 
of  the  people  were  to  be  considered.  The  ministers 
of  the  neighbourhood  were  entitled  to  test  the 
qualifications  of  the  man  chosen  by  the  people,  and 
public  notice  of  the  proceedings  was  widely  spread, 
lest  anyone  should  have  any  complaint  to  bring 
against  the  character  of  the  minister-elect.  But, 
these  ordeals  being  safely  passed,  he  was  ordained 
without  laying  on  of  hands — a  restriction  repealed 
in  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline.  The  appoint- 
ment was  ad  vitam  aut  culpam,  in  the  sense  not 
only  that  the  congregation  was  not  at  liberty  to 
reject  or  change  the  pastor  without  being  able  to 


236  JOHN  KNOX 

convict  him  of  crime  worthy  of  deposition,  but  that  he 
was  not  at  liberty  to  leave  the  flock  at  his  pleasure 
to  which  he  had  promised  his  fidelity  and  labours. 

Ministers  of  the  right  stamp  were  scarce,  yet 
an  earnest  warning  was  given  against  allowing  this 
to  interfere  with  the  testing  of  the  qualifications  of 
applicants  :  "  We  are  not  ignorant  that  the  rarity 
of  godly  and  learned  men  shall  seem  to  some  a 
just  reason  why  that  so  straight  and  sharp  ex- 
amination should  not  be  taken  universally ;  for  so 
it  shall  appear  that  the  most  part  of  the  kirks 
shall  have  no  minister  at  all.  But  let  these  men 
understand  that  the  lack  of  able  men  shall  not 
excuse  us  before  God,  if  by  our  consent  unable 
men  be  placed  over  the  flock  of  Christ  Jesus,  as 
also  that  among  the  Gentiles  godly,  learned  men 
were  also  rare  as  they  be  now  among  us  when 
the  Apostle  gave  the  same  rule  to  try  and  examine 
ministers  which  we  now  follow  :  and  last,  let  them 
understand  that  it  is  alike  to  have  no  minister  at  all 
and  to  have  an  idol  in  the  place  of  a  true  minister  ; 
yea,  and  in  some  cases  it  is  worse  ;  for  those  that 
be  utterly  destitute  of  ministers  .will  be  diligent 
to  search  for  them ;  but  those  that  have  a  vain 
shadow  do  commonly  without  further  care  content 
themselves  with  the  same,  and  so  remain  they 
continually  deceived,  thinking  that  they  have  a 


HIS  IDEALS  237 

minister  when  in  very  deed  they  have  none.  For 
we  cannot  judge  him  a  dispenser  of  God's  mysteries 
that  in  no  wise  can  break  the  bread  of  life  to 
the  fainting  and  hungry  souls ;  neither  judge  we 
that  the  sacraments  can  be  rightly  ministered 
by  him  in  whose  mouth  God  has  put  no  sermon 
of  exhortation." 

To  meet,  however,  the  difficulties  created  by 
the  greatness  of  the  field  and  the  paucity  of  the 
labourers  two  extra  offices  were  recognised,  neither 
of  which  has  maintained  its  place  in  the  Presbyterian 
system.  Of  these  the  first  was  that  of  Readers, 
who  were  to  read  prayers  and  the  Scriptures,  but 
were  unable  to  exhort.  They  were,  however, 
encouraged  to  attempt  a  few  words  of  exhortation 
and  instruction  ;  and,  if  these  efforts  succeeded, 
they  might  look  forward  to  ultimate  promotion 
to  the  superior  office.  The  other  was  that  of 
Superintendents.  These  were  to  be  ten  in  number, 
and  areas  were  allotted  to  them  severally,  not 
unlike  in  extent  to  the  sees  of  bishops,  within 
which  they  were  to  erect  the  fabric  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  in  so  far  as  this  had  not  been  already 
done,  and  watch  over  its  development  where  it 
already  existed.  They  were  not  only  to  plant  new 
charges,  but  to  examine  the  life,  diligence  and 
behaviour  of  ministers,  as  also  the  order  of  their 


i38  JOHN  KNOX 

churches  and  the  manners  of  the  people.  "  They 
must  further  consider  how  the  poor  be  provided  ; 
how  the  youth  be  instructed  ;  they  must  admonish 
where  admonition  needeth  ;  redress  such  things  as 
by  good  counsel  they  may  be  able  to  appease  ; 
and,  finally,  they  must  note  such  crimes  as  be 
heinous,  that  by  the  censure  of  the  Church  the 
same  may  be  corrected." 

It  is  undeniable  that  such  an  official  bore  a 
close  resemblance  to  a  bishop  ;  and  it  was  this 
that  led  to  the  speedy  discontinuance  of  the  office. 
But  a  superintendent  differed  essentially  from  a 
bishop  in  this  respect,  that  he  was  not  supposed 
to  belong  to  a  third  order  above  ministers  and 
elders.  Besides,  the  most  stringent  measures  were 
taken  that  he  should  not  act  like  the  idle  bishops 
of  preceding  times,  but  be  a  harder  worker  than  any 
minister ;  and  it  was  expressly  stipulated  that  he  should 
be  liable  to  the  censure  of  the  elders  and  ministers, 
who  were  at  liberty  to  depose  him  in  case  of  need. 

It  is  not  forgotten  that  a  proposal  to 
revive  this  office  was  recently  made  by  one  of 
the  most  eminent  ministers  of  Scotland  when 
preaching  before  the  General  Assembly  of  his 
Church  ;  his  contention  being  that  there  are  ministers 
who  require  superintendence  in  order  to  make  the 
most  of  their  talents  but,  without  it,  fall  into  habits 


HIS  IDEALS  239 

of  idleness  or  vain  and  aimless  energy.  The 
actual  proposal  did  not  take  much  hold  of  the 
mind  of  the  country ;  but  something  was  done 
in  his  own  denomination  towards  dealing  with 
inefficiency  ;  and  a  widespread  impression  was  pro- 
duced that  in  every  Church  there  is  requisite  an 
episcopal  function,  whether  this  is  to  be  lodged  in 
a  single  person  or  in  such  a  body  as  the  presbytery. 

There  is  another  subject  that  occupies  so  much 
space  in  the  Book  of  Discipline  that  it  also  might 
almost  be  designated  the  theme  of  the  whole  ; 
and  this  is  the  disposal  of  the  funds  accruing 
from  the  disestablishment  and  disendowment  of 
the  old  Church.  These  were  of  vast  extent, 
including  the  revenues  of  the  abbeys,  cloisters, 
nunneries,  chapels,  chantries,  cathedral  churches, 
canonries  and  the  like,  which  were  swept  away  by 
the  Reformation.  It  was  the  desire  of  Knox  and 
his  fellow-labourers  that  these  funds  should  flow  into 
the  treasury  of  the  new  Church  and  be  employed 
first  of  all  for  the  support  of  ministers  and  superin- 
tendents. For  these  a  rate  of  remuneration  is  fixed 
in  the  Book  of  Discipline  on  a  modest  scale,  but, 
as  the  ministry  was  no  longer  to  be  celibate,  a 
more  liberal  allowance  than  formerly  was  required. 
"  Provision  must  be  made  not  only  for  their  own 


240  JOHN  KNOX 

sustentation  during  their  lives  but  also  for  their 
wives  and  children  after  them.  For  we  consider  it 
a  thing  most  contrarious  to  reason,  godliness  and 
equity,  that  the  widow  and  children  of  him  who 
in  his  life  did  faithfully  serve  the  Kirk  of  God 
and  for  that  cause  did  not  carefully  make  provision 
for  his  family  should  after  his  death  be  left  comfort- 
less of  all  provision."  Elders  and  deacons  were 
not  to  receive  any  monetary  remuneration. 

But  the  wealth  proceeding  from  the  old  Church 
ought  far  to  have  exceeded  the  necessities  of  the 
ministry  of  the  new  body,  on  however  liberal  a 
scale  these  had  been  calculated ;  and  accordingly 
Knox  and  those  who  shared  his  ideas  were  able  to 
contemplate  other  objects  of  national  importance 
to  which  the  surplus  might  be  devoted. 

One  of  these  was  provision  for  the  poor  ;  and 
such  sentences  as  the  following  on  this  vital  subject 
have  not  yet  lost  their  virtue  :  "  Every  several 
kirk  must  provide  for  the  poor  within  itself ; 
for  fearful  and  horrible  it  is  that  whom  not  only 
God  the  Father  in  His  law,  but  Jesus  Christ  in 
His  evangel,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  speaking  by  St. 
Paul  hath  so  earnestly  commended  to  our  care, 
are  universally  so  contemned  and  despised.  We 
are  not  patrons  for  stubborn  and  idle  beggars,  who, 
running  from  place  to  place,  make  a  craft  of  their 


HIS  IDEALS  241 

begging,  whom  the  civil  magistrate  ought  to  punish  ; 
but  for  the  widow  and  fatherless,  the  aged,  impotent 
or  lame,  who  neither  can  nor  may  travail  for  their 
sustentation,  we  say  that  God  commandeth  His 
people  to  be  careful  ;  and  therefore  for  such,  as  also 
for  persons  of  honesty  fallen  into  decay  and  penury, 
ought  such  provision  to  be  made  that  of  our 
abundance  should  their  indigence  be  relieved.  How 
this  most  conveniently  and  most  easily  may  be  done 
in  every  city  and  other  parts  of  this  realm,  God 
shall  show  you  wisdom  and  the  means,  so  that  your 
minds  be  godly  thereto  inclined.  All  must  not  be 
suffered  to  beg  that  gladly  so  would  do ;  neither 
yet  must  beggars  remain  where  they  choose  ;  but 
the  stout  and  strong  beggar  must  be  compelled 
to  work,  and  every  person  that  may  not  work  must 
be  compelled  to  repair  to  the  place  where  he  or  she 
was  born  (unless  of  long  continuance  they  have 
remained  in  one  place),  and  there  reasonable  provision 
must  be  made  for  their  sustentation  as  the  Church 
shall  appoint.  The  order  nor  sums  in  our  judgments 
cannot  be  particularly  appointed  unto  such  time  as 
the  poor  of  every  city,  town  or  parish  be  compelled 
to  repair  to  the  places  where  they  were  born,  or  of 
their  residences,  where  their  names  and  number  must 
be  taken  and  put  in  roll ;  and  then  may  the  wisdom 
of  the  Kirk  appoint  stipends  accordingly." 

16 


242  JOHN  KNOX 

A  further  application  of  these  wholesome  senti- 
ments is  made  in  the  following  words  to  the  poor 
of  another  class — those,  namely,  who,  while  not 
receiving  poor  relief  but  paying  teinds,  were  unable, 
without  a  sense  of  oppression,  to  sustain  the  public 
burdens  they  had  to  bear  : — 

"  We  must  crave  of  your  Honours,  in  the  name 
of  the  Eternal  God  and  of  His  Son  Christ  Jesus, 
that  ye  have  respect  to  your  poor  brethren,  the 
labourers  and  manurers  of  the  ground  ;  who  by 
these  cruel  beasts  the  papists  have  been  so  oppressed 
that  their  life  to  them  has  been  dolorous  and  bitter. 
If  ye  will  have  God  author  and  approver  of  your 
reformation,  ye  must  not  follow  their  footsteps  ;  but 
ye  must  have  compassion  on  your  brethren,  appoint- 
ing them  to  pay  so  reasonable  teinds  that  they  may 
find  some  benefit  of  Christ  Jesus  now  preached  unto 
them.  With  the  grief  of  our  hearts  we  hear  that 
some  gentlemen  are  now  as  cruel  over  their  tenants 
as  ever  the  papists  were,  requiring  of  them  whatsoever 
before  they  paid  to  the  Church  ;  so  that  the  papis- 
tical tyranny  shall  only  be  changed  into  the  tyranny 
of  the  lord  or  of  the  laird.  We  dare  not  flatter 
your  Honours,  neither  yet  is  it  profitable  for  you 
that  so  we  do ;  if  ye  permit  such  cruelty  to  be 
used,  neither  shall  ye,  who  by  your  authority  ought 
to  gainstand  such  oppression,  neither  they  that  use 


HIS  IDEALS  243 

the  same  escape  God's  heavy  and  fearful  judgments. 
The  Gentlemen,  Barons,  Earls,  Lords  and  others 
must  be  content  to  live  upon  their  just  rents,  and 
suffer  the  Church  to  be  restored  to  her  liberty,  that 
in  her  restitution  the  poor,  who  heretofore  by  the 
cruel  papists  have  been  spoiled  and  oppressed,  may 
now  receive  some  comfort  and  relaxation." 

But  the  principal  object  on  which  the  surplus  was 
to  be  expended  was  education.  To  every  church 
was  to  be  attached  a  schoolmaster,  able  to  teach 
grammar  and  the  Latin  tongue,  if  the  town  were  of 
any  reputation.  In  landward  districts  the  work 
might  be  undertaken  by  the  minister  or  reader,  and 
the  subjects  might  be  more  rudimentary,  but  the 
thorough  teaching  of  the  Catechism  must  be  included. 
So  much  for  elementary  education.  Then,  in  every 
notable  town,  and  especially  in  the  town  of  the 
superintendent,  there  was  to  be  erected  a  college  or, 
as  we  should  now  term  it,  a  high  school,  in  which 
the  Arts,  at  least  Logic  and  Rhetoric,  together  with 
the  tongues,  should  be  read  by  sufficient  masters,  for 
whom  honest  stipends  must  be  appointed  ;  and 
bursaries  were  to  be  provided  not  only  for  the  poor 
and  clever  boys  of  the  place,  but  also  for  such  from 
the  rural  districts.  This  was  the  second  stage— 
what  we  now  call  Intermediate  Education — and  the 
summit  of  the  edifice  was  to  be  found  in  the  three 


244  JOHN  KNOX 

universities  of  St.  Andrews,  Glasgow  and  Aberdeen  ; 
Edinburgh  not  having  yet  advanced  to  the  dignity 
of  a  university  city.  In  St.  Andrews  there  were 
three  colleges,  in  Glasgow  two,  and  in  Aberdeen  two, 
with  two  or  more  chairs  in  each. 

The  Book  of  Discipline  enters  minutely  into  the 
arrangements  of  these  great  seats  of  learning, 
expatiating  on  the  courses  to  be  taken  by  the 
students  and  the  duties  and  emoluments  of  the 
professors.  The  officials,  from  principals  and  rectors 
down  to  porters  and  beadles,  are  carefully  described, 
and  the  relation  of  offenders  to  the  civil  powers  in 
the  cities  where  the  universities  are  situated  nicely 
discriminated.  But  here  again  the  essential  thing 
is  the  search  for  talent  among  the  poor  and  the 
provision  for  free  education,  while  the  sons  of  the 
nobility  were  required  to  pay  according  to  their 
several  degrees. 

The  whole  sketch,  which  is  detailed  and  well- 
informed  in  every  direction,  is  accompanied  with  a 
running  comment  on  the  desirability  of  learning  for 
its  own  sake  and  its  utility  to  the  commonwealth  ; 
and  it  winds  up  with  the  assurance  to  the  nobles,  to 
whom  the  Book  of  Discipline  was  addressed  :  "  If 
God  shall  grant  quietness  and  give  your  Wisdoms 
grace  to  set  forward  letters  in  the  sort  prescribed, 
ye  shall  leave  wisdom  to  your  posterity,  a  treasure 


HIS  IDEALS  245 

more  to  be  esteemed  than  any  earthly  treasure  you 
are  able  to  provide  for  them  !  " 

This  is  John  Knox's  famous  scheme  for  national 
education.  Its  outline  was  clear  and  imposing  ;  and 
the  eloquence  with  which  it  enforced  the  claims  and 
advantages  of  education  appealed  at  once  both  to 
the  imagination  and  the  common  sense  of  the 
country.  Its  accomplishment  was  delayed  and  its 
beneficial  results  were  permanently  impoverished  by 
the  avarice  of  the  nobility ;  but  it  has  never  ceased 
to  hold  its  place  as  an  ideal  in  the  public  mind  ; 
and  to  it  must  be  ascribed  in  no  small  degree  the 
reputation  for  education  which  Scotland  has  attained 
in  the  world.  Even  yet,  although  the  sum  of 
human  knowledge  has  increased  enormously  in 
extent,  the  efforts  of  educationists  are  absorbed  into 
Knox's  scheme  without  completely  filling  it  up  ;  and 
the  very  latest  developments,  such  as  the  Education 
Bill  of  Lord  Young  and  the  munificent  gift  of  Mr. 
Carnegie,  only  serve  to  perfect  the  ladder  which  he 
began  to  construct 

The  entire  Book  of  Discipline  may  be  called 
Knox's  vision  of  a  Scotland  religious,  virtuous, 
intelligent  and  happy ;  and,  if  it  be  contended  that 
he  laid  less  stress  than  is  due  on  the  last  of  these 
adjectives,  it  may  be  replied  that  he  in  his  own 


246  JOHN  KNOX 

person  set  an  example  of  happiness,  and  that  a 
nation  is  more  likely  to  come  out  all  right  at  the 
end  of  this  series  of  adjectives  by  taking  them  in 
his  order  than  by  taking  them  in  the  opposite 
direction.  It  was  not  too  proud  a  boast  with 
which  the  Book  of  Discipline  closed  when,  after 
praying  the  nobles  to  whom  it  was  addressed  to 
receive  its  proposals  with  an  open  and  favourable 
mind, the  authors  added: — "This  our  judgment  shall 
abide  to  the  generations  following  for  a  monument 
and  witness,  how  lovingly  God  called  you  and  this 
realm  to  repentance,  what  counsellers  God  sent  unto 
you,  and  how  ye  used  the  same." 


INDEX 


ABERDEEN,  63,  89,  244 

Adamson,  Elizabeth,  12 

All-Hallows.  London,  34 

Alps,  48 

Anabaptism,  159,  163,  200,  232 

Arrninianism,  159 

Assembly,  General,  65,  76,  81, 

109,  131,  167 
Assurance,  154 
Ayrshire,  1 5,  44 

BALFOUR,  JAMES,  29 
Balnaves.    Henry,   20,    27,   98, 

14$,  154 
Band,  The,  54 

Bannatyne,  Richard,  87,  92,  93 
Baptism,  106,  203 
Bartholomew,  Massacre  of  St., 

88 

Beaton,  Cardinal,  18,  19,  190 
Berwick,  32,  59,  82,  100,  107 
Beza,  88 

Bible,  17,  46,  55, 91, 93, 129,  198 
Book  of  Common   Order,   36, 

109,  195,  215,  225 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  33. 

39.4<> 

•»47 


Book  of  Discipline, '64,  194,  225 
Bothwell,  Earls  of,  4,  78,  79 
Bowes,  Marjory,  47 
Bowes,  Mrs.,  46,  100 
Brown,  Dr.  Hume,  26,  27,  no 
Buchanan,  George,  6,  166 
Bullinger,  101,  167 

CALDER  HOUSE,  43 

Calvin,  38,  48,  49,  50,  72,  93, 

130.  133,  218 

Calvinism,  158,  161-3,  189 
Calvin's  Catechism,  218,  219 
Carlyle,  25,  194 
Carnegie,  Mr.,  245 
Castellio,  49,  161 
Castle  of  St.  Andrews,  20,  21, 

98 

Chaplains-in-Ordinary,  33,  34 
Church  of  England,  31-5,  38, 

39,  130,  195,  199,  217,  224 
Clergy,  11,  19,  42,  55.  61,  62, 

123,  124 

Confession,  Scots,  61,  62,  199 
„  Westminster,   131, 

202 

Confessions,  146 


INDEX 


Congregation,    Lords    of    the, 

54.  58,  61,  109,  168,  181 
Councils,  20 1 
Craig,  John,  178,  220 
Cranmer,  31,  103 
Craw,  Paul,  15 

Crossraguel,  Abbot  of,  108,  125 
Cupar  Muir,  58 

DANTE,  in 

Darnley,  77-9,  109 

Deacons,  233,  240 

"  Devout  Imaginations,"  64 

Dieppe,   38,   50,  51,    100,   101, 

105,  107 
Directory  for  Public  Worship, 

216,  222 
Discipline,  228 
Dundee,  15,  17,  18,  56,  57,  63 

EDINBURGH,  11,  12,  18,  42,  43, 

45,  53,  60,  63,  75,  79,  82-4, 

88,  115,  132,244 
Education,  64,  124,  243 
Edward  VI.,  31,  33,  36,  37,  66, 

99,  217 

Elders,  233,  240 
Election,  157,  164 
Elizabeth,   Queen,  50,   53,  78, 

169-72 
England,  28,  31,  35,  53,  58,  59, 

80,  100,  101,  103,  105 
Erskine  of  Dun,  12,  43,  63,  74 
Excommunication,  109,  228 

FAST,  GENERAL,  109,  131 


Fathers,  201 

Feminine  attire,  46 

France,  20,  25,  27,  51,  53,  58, 

60,  66,  67,  70,  84,  88,  182 
Francis  II.,  54,  55,  60,  67 
Frankfort,  38-41,  104,  217 
Friars,  II,  12,  47,  107,  118 

GALLEYS,  25,  27-9 

Gardiner,  102 

Geneva,  38,  41,  47-50,  53,  106, 

107,  161,  162,  230 
Geneva  Bible,  7,  49 
Gifford,  3 

Glasgow,  6,  63,  120,  244 
Glencairn,  Earl  of,  44,  90 
Goodman,  Christopher,  41,  48, 

63 

HADDINGTON,  3,  4,  6,  18,  20,  58 
Hamilton,  Patrick,  16,  no 
Harlaw,  42 
Herkless,  20 

History  of  the  Reformation  in 
Scotland,  5,  14,  16,  109,  160 
Holyrood,  70,  74 
Humanism,  6 
Huss,  15 
Hymns,  221 

IDOLATRY,   13,  33,  56,1  57,  99, 

123,  125,  130,  179,  180 
Innes,  Mr.  Taylor,  109 
Irving,  Edward,  202 

JAMES  V.,  15,  19,  66 


INDEX 


249 


James  VI.,  79 

Justification  by  faith,  98,  123, 
144,  154 

KETHE,  WILLIAM,  220 
Kings,  173,  179,  180,  184 
Kirkcaldy  of  Grange,  20,   83, 

84,9° 

Knox,  Mrs.,  II 
,      William,  5 

LAING,  DR.  DAVID,  98 

Lamp  of  Lothian,  4 

Lawson,  89,  90 

Leith,  15,  58 

Lex  Rex,  178 

Lindsay,  Sir  David,  20,  22,  129 

Litany,  39 

Liturgy,  215 

Lochleven,  71,  80 

Lollards  of  Kyle,  44 

Lord's  Supper,  35,  45,  55,  74, 

99 

Luther,   9-11,    14-16,   47,    128, 
132,  154,  218 

McCRiE,  C.  G.,  218,  231 

McCrie,  T.,  10 

Maitland  of  Lethington,  43,  46, 

59,  76-8,  83-6,  168 
Major,  John,  4,  6 
Marriage,  232 
Mary    of    Guise,    20,    44,    50, 

54-6,  60,  66,  67,  105,  no, 

112,  113,  115,  116,  174,  183, 

187 


Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  50,  54, 
60,  66-80,  83,  no,  174 

Mary  Tudor,  33,  37,  40,  42,  50, 
53,  100,  102,  107,  108,  179 

Mass,  13,  34,  45,  56,  61,  68-70, 
72,  74,  99,  loo,  105,  108, 

124,179 

Melville,  Andrew,  227 
Melville,  James,  86 
Ministers,  229,  233 
Montrose,  17,  56 
Moray,  Regent,  43,  69,  72,  78, 

80-82,83 

Morton,  Earl  of,  88,  90,  94 
Multitude,  "  The  rascal,"  5,  57, 

77 

NEWCASTLE,  32,  100,  107 
Nobility,  16,  64,  65,  72,  76,  80 
107,  168,  174,  184,  186,  245 
Non-intrusion,  233 

ORDER  OF  GENEVA,  218,  220 
Orders,  32 

PARAPHRASES,  221 

Paris,  107 

Pauperism,  230,  241 

Perfectionism,  159 

Perth,  56,  63 

Philip  of  Spain,  40,  101 

Plato,  69 

Poor,  The,  64,  124,  240,  244 

Pope,  The,  23,  61,  78,  103,  I22( 

124,  185 
Portrait,  26 


INDEX 


Prayer,  29,  46,  55.  99.  2I5 
Predestination,   49,    108,    157, 

162,  189 
Priests,  13,  18,  27,  47,  50,  72, 

124 

Prophesying,  232 
Psalms,  134,  218,  220 
Puritanism,  40 

RANFURLY,  4 
Randolph,  58,  60 
Readers,  237,  243 
Reformation,  14,  31,  35,  42,  50, 

54,  55,61,  no,  197 
Rizzio,  78,  190 
Rochester,  34 
Rous,  221 
Row,  John,  63,  199 
Rutherford,  Samuel,  178 

ST.  ANDREWS,  6,  15,  16,  18,  21, 
22,  25,  28,  63,  84,  88,  1 1 8, 

122,  129,  244 

St.  Giles,  82,  88,  108,  113 
Scone,  57 
Servetus,  49,  188 
Spain,  73,  102 


Spottiswood,  63,  199 
Sternhold  and  Hopkins,t22o 
Stirling,  56,  58,  80,  82 
Superintendents,  237,  238 
Synod,  Provincial,  42,  55 

TITHES,  106 

Toleration,  159,  188,  190 
Transubstantiation,  123 

UNIVERSITIES,  87,  244 

WELSH,  MRS.,  47 
Westminster     Confession     of 

Faith,  131,  202 
Willock,  42,  63,  81,  112,  199 
Wishart,    George,    16,    17,    19, 

20,    23,     26,     29,     43,     no, 

112 

Women,  50,  69,  107,  167,  168 
Wycliffe,  15 
Wynram,  John,  63,  199 

YEAR,  CHRISTIAN,  232 
Young,  Lord,  245 

ZWING  i,  14 


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